Abstract:
Low phosphorous (P) availability in soils limits pr
oduction of soybean [
Glycine max
(L.)
Merr.] around the world. This study was conducted t
o determine whether exogenous
expression of the rice (
Oryza sativa
L.) phosphates transporter gene
OsPT2
would increase
inorganic phosphates (Pi) acquisition and improve y
ield in transgenic soybean.
Cotyledonary-node explants of the soybean were inoc
ulated with the
Agrobacterium
tumefaciens
strain EHA105 harboring the vector pCAMBIA3301-
OsPT2
, which contained
OsPT2
,
gus
and
bar
genes. Ten fertile T
0
transgenic plants were obtained and semi-
quantitative RT-PCR of progenies demonstrated that
OsPT2
gene was overexpressing in
the T
2
generation. Three T
2
transgenic lines overexpressing
OsPT2
were selected and
subjected to testing for tolerance to low concentra
tions of Pi (low-Pi; 20
μ
M Pi) by
hydroponic culture using modified Hoagland’s nutrie
nt solution. The total P contents in
the leaves, stems, roots, and seeds of the transgen
ic plants significantly increased under
the concentrations of low-Pi and 1,000
μ
M Pi of standard Hoagland’s nutrient solution.
Under low-Pi stress, the yields of the transgenic l
ines were significantly higher than those
of the wild type. Taken together, our data suggest
that the overexpression of
OsPT2
in
transgenic soybean lines improves Pi acquisition an
d seed yield, and
OsPT2
may serve as
one of the promising target genes that can be manip
ulated in crop improvement for minor
use of Pi fertilizers.
Keywords:
Glycine max
, Transgenic plants.
