Enhanced NaCl stress tolerance in transgenic tobacco expressing bacterial choline dehydrogenase

The intracellular accumulation of osmoprotectants, such as glycine betaine and other low molecular weight compounds, is a well investigated response of environmental stress occurring in a wide range of organisms. By introducing the bacterial bet A gene, encoding choline dehydrogenase (CDH), into tobacco both a salt and choline resistant phenotype was achieved. As measured by dried weights, there was an 80% increase in salt tolerance between the transgenic and wild-type plants at 300 mM NaCl.