Improvement in salt tolerance of Populus tomentosa from transformation by a mtl-D gene

Transgenic lines were achieved by transforming the E. coli 1-phosphate mannitol dehydrogenase gene (mtl-D) into the Populus tomentosa Carr. genome. An Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain (AGL1), constructed by cloning mtl-D into the disarmed plasmid pBin438, was used to infect leaves of the clone YW2. The infected leaf discs were cultured on a medium containing 30 mg·L^-1 kanamycin and 500 mg·L^-1 cefotaxime. Transgenic plantlets regenerated from the infected leaves, rooted on the medium containing 30 mg·L^-1 kanamycin. PCR and a Southern blotting test verified that the exogenous mtl-D gene had integrated into the transformation plants of the P. tomentosa genome. The mannitol content in control plant was 69 μg·g^-1 FW, and the mannitol contents of the transgenic lines T1 to T5 ranged between 103.7 and 289.5 μg·g^-1 FW. Of the shoots of the control plants 20% survived; on the medium containing 0.6% NaCl, 60% and 70% of two transgenic shoots survived on a medium containing 0.8% NaCl.