Overexpression of the NAC transcription factor JUNGBRUNNEN1 (JUB1) increases salinity tolerance in tomato

Nouf Owdah Hameed Alshareef, Jian You Wang, Shawkat Ali, Salim Al-Babili, Mark A. Tester, Sandra M. Schmöckel

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51 Scopus citations

Abstract

Soil salinity is a major abiotic stress affecting plant growth and yield, due to both osmotic and ionic stresses. JUBGBRUNNEN1 (JUB1) is a NAC family transcription factor that has been shown to be involved in responses to abiotic stresses, such as water deficit, osmotic, salinity, heat and oxidative stress. In Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis), JUB1 has been shown to improve plant stress tolerance by regulating H2O2 levels. In the horticultural crop, Solanum lycopersicum cv. Moneymaker (tomato), overexpression of AtJUB1 has been shown to partially alleviate water deficit stress at the vegetative stage. In this study, we investigated the effect of Arabidopsis JUB1 overexpression in salinity tolerance in tomato. In hydroponically grown tomato seedlings, AtJUB1 overexpression results in higher prolines levels and improves the maintenance of water content in the plant under salinity stress. The transgenic tomato plants are more tolerant to salinity stress compared to control lines based on plant biomass. However, at the reproductive stage, we found that overexpression of AtJUB1 only provided marginal improvements in yield-related parameters, in the conditions used for the current work. The combination of improved water deficit and salinity stress tolerance conferred by AtJUB1 overexpression may be beneficial when tomato plants are grown in the field under marginal environments.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)113-121
Number of pages9
JournalPlant Physiology and Biochemistry
Volume140
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2019

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: The research described in this publication was supported by funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia. NA also received support from a L′Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science 2014 Middle East Fellowship. SMS received funding from the Ministry for Science, Research and Art of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany (Az: 75533-30-20/1). We thank Venkatesh ThirumalaiKumar and Salma Balazadeh (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam-Golm and University of Potsdam)for providing the seeds of tomato overexpressing AtJUB1 along with the wild type seeds. We also thank Aigerim Rakhmatulina, Fatimah Aljedaani and Hana Kanee (KAUST)for practical assistance during their M.Sc. student course.

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