Barley HVA1 gene confers salt tolerance in R3 transgenic oat

A major cause of oat crop yield loss worldwide is osmotic stress due to drought and/or salinity. This study investigated the third generation of transgenic oat (Avena sativa L.) expressing barley HVA1 stress tolerance, beta-glucuronidase (uidA; gus) and bar herbicide resistance genes. Transgenic plants showed normal 9:7 third generation inheritance for glufosinate ammonium herbicide resistance. Molecular and histochemical studies confirmed the presence and stable expression of all three genes. Compared with the nontransgenic control plants, transgenic R3 plants exhibited greater growth and showed a significant (P < 0.05) increase in tolerance to salt stress conditions (200 mM NaCl) for traits including number of days to heading, plant height, flag leaf area, root length, panicle length, number of spikelets/panicle, number of tillers/plant, number of kernels/panicle, 1000-kernel weight, and kernel yield/plant.