Salt tolerance of Solanum tuberosum L-overexpressing an heterologous osmotin-like protein

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Bintje) was transformed with a cDNA clone encoding an osmotin-like protein. Transgenic and non-transgenic in vitro pl ants were subjected to NaCl for 3 weeks. The shoot and root development was slightly affected by salinity indicating that the salt condition used was a mild stress, The endogenous proline content of the osmotin-like transform ed clone only raised slightly as compared to the non-transformed genotype, where a marked increase in proline content could be observed as a result to salt stress. These data provide evidence for the involvement of osmotin-li ke proteins in the mechanisms of salt tolerance in potato plants.