Assessment of the salt tolerance and environmental biosafety of Eucalyptus camaldulensis harboring a mangrin transgene

Autor: Takayoshi Shimazaki, Etsuko Matsunaga, Akiyo Yamada, Kazuo N. Watanabe, Xiang Yu, Akira Kikuchi, Hiroyasu Ebinuma, Yoshihiro Ozeki
Rok vydání: 2012
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Plant Research. 126:141-150
ISSN: 1618-0860
0918-9440
DOI: 10.1007/s10265-012-0503-9
Popis: Increasing soil salinization of arable land has a major impact on the global ecosystem. One approach to increase the usable global forest area is to develop transgenic trees with higher tolerance to conditions of salt stress. An allene oxide cyclase homolog, mangrin, contains a core protein domain that enhances the salt tolerance of its host. We utilized this feature to develop improved salt-tolerant eucalyptus trees, by using transgenic Eucalyptus camaldulensis carrying the mangrin gene as a model. Since the Japanese government requires an environmental biosafety assessment for the surrounding biosphere, we performed experiments on trees grown in a special netted-house. This study examined the transgenic E. camaldulensis carrying the mangrin gene to assess the feasibility of using these transformants, and assessed their salt tolerance and environmental biosafety. We found that seven of 36 transgenic genotypes had significantly higher salt tolerance than non-transformants, and more importantly, that these plants had no significant impact on environmental biosafety. These results suggest that introduction of the mangrin gene may be one approach to safely enhance salt tolerance in genetically modified Eucalyptus species, and that the transformants have no apparent risks in terms of environmental biosafety. Thus, this study provides valuable information regarding the use of transgenic trees in situ.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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