Enhancement of salt tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana by Zostera japonica DnaJ gene

Abstract Soil salt damage has become one of the main biological stresses affecting plant seed germination, crop growth and yield. Salt damage can lead to the accumulation of superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl free radicals in plants, and a large amount of accumulated reactive oxygen species will cause the oxidation of lipids, proteins and nucleic acids and then cause cell damage. In this experiment, the seedlings and adult plants of transgenic Arabidopsis with overexpression of Zostera japonica ( Z. japonica ) DnaJ gene ZjDjB1 were used as materials. Wild-type and transgenic ZjDjB1 Arabidopsis were treated with 100 mM and 200 mM NaCl and root length, fresh weight, leaf water content and dry weight, physiological indexes and antioxidant system enzyme activities were measured. The results showed that overexpression of Z. japonica DnaJ gene ZjDjB1 could significantly alleviate the damage caused by salt stress to transgenic ZjDjB1 Arabidopsis seedlings and adult plants. The results showed that overexpression of Z. japonica DnaJ gene ZjDjB1 could reduce the content of MDA and O2-, increase the content of proline and activate the enzyme activity of antioxidant system under salt stress, to reduce the damage of salt stress to plants.