Yeda Research and Develpment & Co. Ltd

The Weizmann Institute of Science

Rahan Meristem (1998) Ltd.

Hazera Genetics Ltd.

Avi Gabai

Eli Khayat

Orna Livneh

Uri Pick

Rina Walther

Ada Zamir

Irena Gokhman

Nataly Vinikur

The present invention provides transgenic plants transformed with exogenous nucleic acid encoding aplasma membrane (PM)-ATPase. The transgenic plant has increased tolerance to salt as compared to a corresponding non-transgenic plant. The present invention also provides nucleic acids encoding a chimeric PM-ATPase, which comprise a first portion encoding a plant PM-ATPase or a fragment thereof, and a second portion encoding aPM-ATPase or a fragment thereof. The present invention also discloses a method of producing a transgenic plant having an increased tolerance to salt as compared to a corresponding non-transgenic plant, a method of modifying a plant capacity to survive salt shock, and a method of modifying plant recovery after exposure to salt stress, by introducing into one or more cells of a plant an exogenous nucleic acid encoding aPM-ATPase. Also provided by the present invention are plant cells comprising an exogenous nucleic acid encoding aPM-ATPase, and plant seeds and progeny obtained from the transgenic plants.

Salt resistant transgenic plants

The present invention provides transgenic plants transformed with exogenous nucleic acid encoding asalt-inducible or salt-responsive protein selected from the group consisting of eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3) subunit, NADPH dependent quinone reductase (QOR), aldo-keto reductase (AKR), bifunctional aspartate kinase-homoserine reductase (AK-HSD) and mitochondrial import membrane translocase subunit (TIM9), or a fragment, homolog or variant thereof. The transgenic plants have increased tolerance to salt as compared to corresponding non-transgenic plants. The present invention further provides nucleic acids, constructs and vectors encoding thesalt-inducible or otherwise salt-responsive proteins, and to a method of producing transgenic plants having an increased tolerance to salt, a method of modifying plant capacity to survive salt shock, and a method of modifying plant recovery after exposure to salt stress, by introducing the nucleic acids, constructs and/or vectors into one or more cells of the plant.

Salt responsive genes useful for generating salt resistant transgenic plants

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Vardon, Israel

Avi Gabai