Marker-free transgenic rice plant overexpressing pea LecRLK imparts salinity tolerance by inhibiting sodium accumulation

Key message PsLecRLK overexpression in rice provides tolerance against salinity stress and cause upregulation of SOS1 pathway genes, which are responsible for extrusion of excess Na+ ion under stress condition. Soil salinity is one of the most devastating factors threatening cultivable land. Rice is a major staple crop and immensely affected by soil salinity. The small genome size of rice relative to wheat and barley, together with its salt sensitivity, makes it an ideal candidate for studies on salt stress response caused by a particular gene. Under stress conditions crosstalk between organelles and cell to cell response is imperative. LecRLK is an important family, which plays a key role under stress conditions and regulates the physiology of the plant. Here we have functionally validated the PsLecRLK gene in rice for salinity stress tolerance and hypothesized the model for its working. Salt stress sensitive rice variety IR64 was used for developing marker-free transgenic with modified binary vector pCAMBIA1300 overexpressing PsLecRLK gene. Comparison of transgenic and wild-type (WT) plants showed better physiological and biochemical results in transgenic lines with a low level of ROS, MDA and ion accumulation and a higher level of proline, relative water content, root/shoot ration, enzymatic activities of ROS scavengers and upregulation of stress-responsive genes. Based on the relative expression of stress-responsive genes and ionic content, the working model highlights the role of PsLecRLK in the extrusion of Na + ion from the cell. This extrusion of Na + ion is facilitated by higher expression of SOS1 (Na + /K + channel) in transgenic plants as compared to WT plants. Altered expression of stress-responsive genes and change in biochemical and physiological properties of the cell suggests an extensive reprogramming of the stress-responsive metabolic pathways by PsLecRLK under stress condition, which could be responsible for the salt tolerance capability.