Abstract
The glyoxalase pathway is a check point to monitor the elevation of methylglyoxal (MG) level in plants and is mediated by glyoxalase I (Gly I) and glyoxalase II (Gly II) enzymes in the presence of glutathione. Recent studies established the presence of unique DJ-1/PfpI domain containing protein named glyoxalase III (Gly III) in prokaryotes, involved in the detoxification of MG into D-lactic acid through a single step process. In the present study, eleven transgenic sugarcane events overexpressing EaGly III were assessed for salinity stress (100 mM and 200 mM NaCl) tolerance. Lipid peroxidation as well as cell membrane injury remained very minimal in all the transgenic events indicating reduced oxidative damage. Transgenic events exhibited significantly higher plant water status, gas exchange parameters, chlorophyll, carotenoid, and proline content, total soluble sugars, SOD and POD activity compared to wild type (WT) under salinity stress. Histological studies by taking the cross section showed a highly stable root system in transgenic events upon exposure to salinity stress. Results of the present study indicate that transgenic sugarcane events overexpressing EaGly III performed well and exhibited improved salinity stress tolerance.
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Acknowledgements
We sincerely acknowledge The Director, ICAR Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, for the infrastructure and facilities. The authors would also thank Mr. K. Selvamuthu for his assistance during the course of research for the maintenance of plants.
Funding
The authors thank the Director, ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, for providing the facilities. One of the authors, Manoj V M, thanks Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India, for the award of Senior Research Fellowship (SRF; CSIR-Direct SRF) grant (09/706/0004/2019-EMR-I). This work was supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) (Grant no. F. No. BT/PR12949/AGII/106/986/2015), Government of India, New Delhi.
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MVM and AC designed the work plan. MVM generated the transgenic plants, carried out major works and wrote the manuscript. AP helped in isolating the gene of interest, carried out bombardment. SPTS carried out physiology experiments. ANJ helped in some of the physiological experiments, and interpretation of results. DS helped in root anatomy. AC conceptualized the work design, evaluated all the data interpretations. AC, SR and BR reviewed and edited the manuscript.
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Supplementary material 1 Fig. S1 Morphometric differences between sugarcane transgenic events (a, b and c) and WT (d, e and f) after 15 days of salinity induced stress (100 mM (b and e) and 200 mM (c and f)) along with control (a and d). Significantly different morphometry was noticed between sugarcane transgenic events and WT after 15 days of salinity stress (DOC 541.5 kb)
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Mohanan, M.V., Pushpanathan, A., Padmanabhan, S. et al. Overexpression of Glyoxalase III gene in transgenic sugarcane confers enhanced performance under salinity stress. J Plant Res 134, 1083–1094 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-021-01300-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-021-01300-9