Transgenic plants with enhanced chlorophyll content and salt tolerance

Abstract

The present invention relates to novel nucleic acid construct comprising (a) an anti-sense gene of a sense gene encoding calcium binding protein or a portion of said anti-sense gene, wherein said sense gene is at least 90% similar to the nucleic sequence of SEQ ID No: 1, and wherein said portion of the anti-sense gene is of a size capable of disrupting translation of said calcium binding protein; and (b) a constitutive promoter and a nopaline synthase (nos) polyadenylation signal sequence both operatively linked to said gene or portion thereof; wherein said construct is useful for increasing the level of chlorophyll in plants, a transgenic plant containing said construct and a novel nucleic acid construct useful for developing stress-tolerant plants, comprising (a) a sense gene encoding calcium binding or an altered sense gene wherein said gene encodes proteins of a sequence having biological properties identical to the said sense gene, and (b) the constitutive promoter and the nopaline synthase (nos) polyadenylation signal sequence both operatively linked to said gene or portion thereof.