Brijesh Gupta
India
Research Article
Marker-free Transgenic Tomato with Engineered Mannitol Accumulation Confers Tolerance to Multiple Abiotic Stresses
Author(s): Brijesh Gupta and Rajam MVBrijesh Gupta and Rajam MV
The co-transformation system using mixture of two Agrobacterium cultures, one harbouring bacterial mannitol-1- phosphate dehydrogenase (mtlD) as gene of interest, whereas the other harboring the neomycin phosphotransferase (nptII) marker gene for selection, was successfully used to develop selectable marker-free transgenics of tomato with engineered mannitol accumulation, to improve tolerance against multiple abiotic stresses. We have achieved high co-transformation frequency (up to 24%), and segregation frequency (up to 22-24%) for obtaining marker-free transgenics. Marker-free transgenic tomato plants resulted in mannitol accumulation, as evident by HPLC analysis, that leads to substantial protection of the vigour of the plants under multiple abiotic stress conditions, such as high salinity (up to 200 mM NaCl), drought (up to 15% PEG), and heavy-metal toxicity (up to 2 mM CdCl2). Un.. View More»
