Physiology-based analyses on drought tolerance capacity of transgenic soybean overexpressing GmNAC085 gene

Abstract

Water deficit is one of the most detrimental environmental stresses, affecting growth and productivity of soybean plants. Several NACs have been identified and analyzed under water deficit and showing their potential for genetic engineering to enhance the plant drought tolerance. In this study, the involvement of soybean GmNAC085 in plant response to drought was investigated by using GmNAC085-overexpressing transgenic soybean. The results showed that the transgenic line did not show better relative water content than the wild-type. However, analyzing other physiological traits demonstrated higher drought-tolerance index was seen in the transgenic line 179-7 and the drought treatment caused lower biomass reduction rates in both transgenic lines 179-2 and 179-7. This study therefore recommends other studies focusing on the transpiration and photosynthesis rates in fully understand the regulatory mechanism of GmNAC085 in mediating plant response to drought condition. Keywords: Water deficit, drought tolerance, GmNAC085-overexpressing transgenic soybean.