Field Assessment of AtCBF1 Transgenic Potato Lines (Solanum tuberosum) for Drought Tolerance

摘要

Drought prone areas have been increasing around the world and it is expected that these areas will continue to expand and become more severe due to climate change. Increasing the drought stress tolerance of cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) could aid in feeding the growing global population. The Arabidopsis CBF1 gene (AtCBF1), which has been shown to increase drought tolerance in other plants, was transformed into a cultivated potato line under the control of the stress inducible promoter COR15a. The expression of the AtCBF1 transgene was verified by RT-PCR and the transformed lines were evaluated in field trials to assess agronomic performance under sub-optimal water management. Despite expression of the AtCBF1 gene, none of the transgenic lines out-performed the control cultivar under drought-stressed conditions. Abiotic stress responsive genes from cultivated potato and wild related species may yield more promising results thus CBF1 genes from S. tuberosum and S. commersonii will be transformed into the potato cultivar Desiree and will be field tested for drought tolerance.