The membrane tethered transcription factor EcbZIP17 from finger millet promotes plant growth and enhances tolerance to abiotic stresses

Ramakrishna, C. and Singh, S. and Raghavendrarao, S. and Padaria, J.C. and etl, . (2018) The membrane tethered transcription factor EcbZIP17 from finger millet promotes plant growth and enhances tolerance to abiotic stresses. Scientific Reports, 8. pp. 1-14.

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Abstract

The occurrence of various stresses, as the outcome of global climate change, results in the yield losses of crop plants. Prospecting of genes in stress tolerant plant species may help to protect and improve their agronomic performance. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) is a valuable source of superior genes and alleles for stress tolerance. In this study, we isolated a novel endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane tethered bZIP transcription factor from finger millet, EcbZIP17. Transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing this gene showed better vegetative growth and seed yield compared with wild type (WT) plants under optimal growth conditions and confirmed upregulation of brassinosteroid signalling genes. Under various abiotic stresses, such as 250 mM NaCl, 10% PEG6000, 400 mM mannitol, water withdrawal, and heat stress, the transgenic plants showed higher germination rate, biomass, primary and secondary root formation, and recovery rate, compared with WT plants. The transgenic plants exposed to an ER stress inducer resulted in greater leaf diameter and plant height as well as higher expression of the ER stress-responsive genes BiP, PDIL, and CRT1. Overall, our results indicated that EcbZIP17 improves plant growth at optimal conditions through brassinosteroid signalling and provide tolerance to various environmental stresses via ER signalling pathways.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Finger millet, tolerance,abiotic stresses,yield losses, crop plants,heat stress, transgenic plants
Author Affiliation: ICAR-National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, 110012, India
Subjects: Plant Production
Divisions: Millet
Depositing User: Mr T L Gautham
Date Deposited: 03 Jan 2019 05:38
Last Modified: 03 Jan 2019 05:38
URI: http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/15746

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