CHARACTERIZATION OF DROUGHT RESPONSIVE REGULATORY GENE IDENTIFIED FROM INDIAN MULBERRY (Morus alba L.)
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Date
2017-10-27
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UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES GKVK, BENGALURU
Abstract
Abiotic stresses limit plant growth and development. Faced with scarcity of water,
drought is a serious threat to crop productivity and food security. Concerted efforts are being
made to improve drought tolerance traits of crops. Stress tolerance depends on the coordinated
regulation of several stress-related genes and associated acclimation pathways. Among several
stress responsive genes, transcription factors (TFs) act as one of the major regulators which
regulate the expression of down-stream genes involved in the acclimation process. From previous
studies, basic Helix-Loop-Helix (bHLH) type of TFs were found to be associated with many
biological processes, including abiotic stress response in plants. In a recent study, a stress
responsive bHLH, MabHLH144-like has been cloned from mulberry and two transcript variants
designated as MabHLH144a-like and MabHLH144b-like of size 1512bp and 1419bp,
respectively have been identified. The variants were found to be differentially expressed in leaf
tissues of mulberry maintained under different levels of drought stress by gravimetric approach.
The 93bp deletion in one of the variants caused significant difference in the temporal distribution
of expression in mulberry. To functionally validate the gene, transgenic Arabidopsis and Tobacco
plants were developed to express MabHLH144b-like gene under a constitutive promoter. In-vitro
regeneration assay of the transgenic Tobacco under salt (NaCl) stress condition produced tolerant
phenotypes suggesting improvement in cellular tolerance, and the relevance of the gene in
imparting stress tolerance. Critical analysis of the transgenic lines developed would give
indications on the role of MabHLH144b-like in abiotic stress tolerance.
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