African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (11), pp. 1041-1047, 2 June 2006   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Overexpression AtNHX1 confers salt-tolerance of transgenic tall fescue

Luming Tian1,3+, Conglin Huang1,2+, Rong Yu2+, Ruifang Liang1+, Zhiliang Li1, Lusheng Zhang3, Yongqin Wang1, Xiuhai Zhang1 and Zhongyi Wu1,2*

1Beijing Research Center of Agro-Biotechnology, Beijing 100089, China.

2College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100037, China.

3College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: : wuzhongyi@yahoo.com.

⁺Luming Tian, Conglin Huang, Rong Yu and Ruifang Liang, contributed equally to this paper.

Accepted 18 May, 2006

Saline soil is a serious problem worldwide, and it is necessary to improve the salt tolerance of plants so as to avoid the progressive deterioration of saline soil. Here we report that over-expression of AtNHX1 improves salt tolerance in transgenic tall fescue. The AtNHX1 gene driven with CaMV35S promoter was constructed into the plant expression vector pGreen0229, and introduced into the embryonic calli of hypocotyls of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea ) by particle bombardment. Regenerated plantlets were obtained by screening of herbicide (PPT, 2 mg/L), and the putative transformants were assayed by PCR and western blot analysis. 29 transgenic plants were obtained. The results indicated that the exogenous genes had been integrated into the genomes of transgenic plants, and AtNHX1 is expressed in the plants. There was remarkable salt tolerance in transgenic plants compared to control plants.

Key words: AtNHX1 gene, transgenic tall fescue, particle bombardment, salt-tolerance.