Transformation or rice by genes encoding the potassium TPK channels improves the plant relative growth rates under salinity and drought stress conditions

Abstract

The plant responses to the drought (16% PEG), high concentration of NaCl, KCl and combination of moderate KCl concentrations together with high NaCl ones under the transformation of rice by TPK genes are studied. The OsTPKa transformants exhibit a higher tolerance to the high NaCl or KCl concentrations in cultivation medium. In contrast with OsTPKa transformants, the plants transformed by OsTPKb were more tolerant to the drought stress and the high NaCl concentration supplemented by 50 μM KCl. It is shown that the plant transformation by the genes of TPK channels for the further elevation of their gene expression levels could improve the tolerance to the drought stress, high NaCl or KCl concentrations. The tolerance manner of transformed plants is different and depends on the type of a gene inserted into the rice genome.