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Over-expression of microRNA169 confers enhanced drought tolerance to tomato

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Abstract

Plant miRNA regulates multiple developmental and physiological processes, including drought responses. We found that the accumulation of Sly-miR169 in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) was induced by drought stress. Consequently, Sly-miR169 targets, namely, three nuclear factor Y subunit genes (SlNF-YA1/2/3) and one multidrug resistance-associated protein gene (SlMRP1), were significantly down-regulated by drought stress. Constitutive over-expression of a miR169 family member, Sly-miR169c, in tomato plant can efficiently down-regulate the transcripts of the target genes. Compared with non-transgenic plants, transgenic plants over-expressing Sly-miR169c displayed reduced stomatal opening, decreased transpiration rate, lowered leaf water loss, and enhanced drought tolerance. Our study is the first to provide evidence that the Sly-miR169c negatively regulates stomatal movement in tomato drought responses.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the 973 Program (No. 2009CB119000) and NSFC (No. 30671417), and the 863 Program (No. 2007AA10Z131), as well as the earmarked fund for Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System (Nycytx-35-gw02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China

    Xiaohui Zhang, Zhe Zou, Khurram Ziaf & Zhibiao Ye

  2. Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China

    Pengjuan Gong, Junhong Zhang, Hanxia Li & Zhibiao Ye

  3. Department of Microbiology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3052, USA

    Fangming Xiao

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  1. Xiaohui Zhang
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  2. Zhe Zou
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  3. Pengjuan Gong
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  4. Junhong Zhang
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  5. Khurram Ziaf
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  6. Hanxia Li
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  7. Fangming Xiao
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  8. Zhibiao Ye
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhibiao Ye.

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Xiaohui Zhang and Zhe Zou contributed equally to this work.

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Zhang, X., Zou, Z., Gong, P. et al. Over-expression of microRNA169 confers enhanced drought tolerance to tomato. Biotechnol Lett 33, 403–409 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-010-0436-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-010-0436-0

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