Enhanced Drought Tolerance by Overexpressing of Arabidopsis Thaliana LOS5 Gene in Cotton (zhongmiansuo35)

Drought has been identified as one of the greatest yield-reducing factors. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a crucial role for plants to adapt to water deficit. The Arabidopsis thaliana LOS5 gene encodes a molybdenum cofactor (MoCo) sulfurase involving in regulation of ABA biosynthesis and is induced by drought and PEG treatments. In the present study, LOS5 cDNA of Arabidopsis thaliana was cloned and ligated to pCAMBIA 1300 binary vector, and transformed to cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) plants cv. zhongmiansuo35 by using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. We have obtained the cotton plants overexpressing the Arabidopsis thaliana LOS5 gene under drought condition, and found that the transgenic cotton plants accumulated more ABA and proline as well as showed better cellular membrane stability while subjected to water-deficit conditions.