GENERATING GENE EXPRESSION CONSTRUCT AND AGROBACTERIUM-MEDIATED TRANSFORMATION OF GmDREB7A IN TOBACCO

Abstract

Soybean is a seed crop with high economic and nutritional value and a soil improvement crop that poorly tolerates drought and salinity. In the soybean genome, the DREB gene group has been identified as activating transcription of stress-resistance genes, including some genes of unknown function, and DREB7 is one of them. In this study, the GmDREB7A gene and its expression construct were designed and successfully transformed into tobacco. Gene GmDREB7A includes an amino acid coding sequence, a c-myc coding segment, KDEL, and an additional short nucleotide at the 5,' and 3' ends containing the restriction enzyme's cut-off point. Two transgenic constructs pBI121_GmDREB7A and pZY_GmDREB7A have been successfully designed. The results of structural transformation pBI121_GmDREB7A carrying the GmDREB7A gene into tobacco plants produced 248 transgenic plants after selection with kanamycin, and 30 plants under greenhouse conditions with nine plants were positive for PCR. It is necessary to continue to analyze the T0 transgenic tobacco plants that are positive for PCR and evaluate the tolerance to drought and salinity stress of the GmDREB7A transgenic plants.