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Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Control of glycerol biosynthesis under high salt stress in Arabidopsis

Ahmed Bahieldin A B G , Jamal S. M. Sabir A , Ahmed Ramadan A C , Ahmed M. Alzohairy D , Rania A. Younis B , Ahmed M. Shokry A C , Nour O. Gadalla A E , Sherif Edris A B F , Sabah M. Hassan A B , Magdy A. Al-Kordy A E , Khalid B. H. Kamal A , Samar Rabah A , Osama A. Abuzinadah A and Fotouh M. El-Domyati A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), PO Box 80141, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.

B Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

C Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI), Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt.

D Genetics Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig 44511, Egypt.

E Genetics and Cytology Department, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Division, National Research Center, Dokki, Egypt.

F Princess Al-Jawhara Al-Brahim Centre of Excellence in Research of Hereditary Disorders (PACER-HD), Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

G Corresponding author. Email: bahieldin55@gmail.com

Functional Plant Biology 41(1) 87-95 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP13005
Submitted: 4 February 2013  Accepted: 27 June 2013   Published: 24 July 2013

Abstract

Loss-of-function and gain-of-function approaches were utilised to detect the physiological importance of glycerol biosynthesis during salt stress and the role of glycerol in conferring salt tolerance in Arabidopsis. The salt stress experiment involved wild type (WT) and transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing the yeast GPD1 gene (analogue of Arabidopsis GLY1 gene). The experiment also involved the Arabidopsis T-DNA insertion mutants gly1 (for suppression of glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase or G3PDH), gli1 (for suppression of glycerol kinase or GK), and act1 (for suppression of G3P acyltransferase or GPAT). We evaluated salt tolerance levels, in conjunction with glycerol and glycerol 3-phosphate (G3P) levels and activities of six enzymes (G3PDH, ADH (alcohol dehydrogenase), ALDH (aldehyde dehydrogenase), GK, G3PP (G3P phosphatase) and GLYDH (glycerol dehydrogenase)) involved in the glycerol pathway. The GPD1 gene was used to overexpress G3PDH, a cytosolic NAD+-dependent key enzyme of cellular glycerol biosynthesis essential for growth of cells under abiotic stresses. T2 GPD1-transgenic plants and those of the two mutants gli1 and act1 showed enhanced salt tolerance during different growth stages as compared with the WT and gly1 mutant plants. These results indicate that the participation of glycerol, rather than G3P, in salt tolerance in Arabidopsis. The results also indicate that the gradual increase in glycerol levels in T2 GPD1-transgenic, and gli1 and act1 mutant plants as NaCl level increases whereas they dropped at 200 mM NaCl. However, the activities of the G3PDH, GK, G3PP and GLYDH at 150 and 200 mM NaCl were not significantly different. We hypothesise that mechanism(s) of glycerol retention/efflux in the cell are affected at 200 mM NaCl in Arabidopsis.

Additional keywords: abiotic stress, osmoprotection, T-DNA insertion.


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