Authors: Shareena Sreedharan Upendra K Singh Shekhawat Thumballi R Ganapathi
Publish Date: 2015/03/11
Volume: 88, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 41-52
Abstract
High soil salinity constitutes a major abiotic stress and an important limiting factor in cultivation of crop plants worldwide Here we report the identification and characterization of a aquaporin gene MusaPIP26 which is involved in salt stress signaling in banana MusaPIP26 was firstly identified based on comparative analysis of stressed and nonstressed banana tissue derived EST data sets and later overexpression in transgenic banana plants was performed to study its tangible functions in banana plants The overexpression of MusaPIP26 in transgenic banana plants using constitutive or inducible promoter led to higher salt tolerance as compared to equivalent untransformed control plants Cellular localization assay performed using transiently transformed onion peel cells indicated that MusaPIP26 protein tagged with green fluorescent protein was translocated to the plasma membrane MusaPIP26overexpressing banana plants displayed better photosynthetic efficiency and lower membrane damage under salt stress conditions Our results suggest that MusaPIP26 is involved in salt stress signaling and tolerance in banana
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