Plant Tissue Cult. & Biotech. 33(1): 71-84, 2023 (June)

General

Downregulation of the OsAKT1 K⁺ /Na⁺ Transporter Gene by CRISPR-Cas9 Mediated Transformation in Sensitive Rice IR29 Makes it Tolerant to Salt Stress

Imran Khan, Aysha Akter Laboni, Tomalika Azim, Sabrina M. Elias¹ and Zeba I. Seraj^*

Plant Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh

Key words: Rice, K⁺/Na⁺ transporter, downregulation, salt tolerance

Abastract

The coastal area of Bangladesh is affected by soil salinity which threatens rice production. Saline soils are mainly caused by excessive Na⁺ which interferes with the uptake of the essential nutrient K^+. Certain K⁺ transporters may cause leakage of Na⁺ ions and the OsAKT1 transporter was earlier shown to be downregulated under salt stress in a tolerant rice landrace called Horkuch. We therefore targeted this gene for CRISPR-Cas9 mediated downregulation by Agrobacterium-mediated in planta transformation in salt sensitive IR29 rice. The gene was shown to be significantly downregulated in at least 2 independent transformants. One of the gene edited IR29 transformants showed significantly high survival, low loss in chlorophyll content, low electrolyte leakage as well as low H2O2 after 15-days of salt stress at 120 mM NaCl at the T3 generation. Therefore the potassium transporter OsAKT1 gene is a good target for downregulation to produce salt tolerant rice.

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