Studies on high salt tolerance of transgenic tobacco

With E. coli mtlD gene (encoding mannitol 1-phosphate dehydrogenase) and gutD gene (encoding glucitol 6-phosphate dehydrogenase) cloned, plant expression vector pBIGM had been obtained by inserting mtlD and gutD genes into binary vector pBin438. Tobacco was transformed with A. tumefaciens LBA4404 containing pBIGM. Results of molecular hybridization of transformed plants indicated that mtlD and gutD genes had integrated into the genomic DNA of tobacco plants. Experiments of salt tolerance and analysis of sugar alcohols showed that the accumulation of different sugar alcohols in transgenic tobacco plants had increased salt tolerance of tobacco.