Creation of elite growth and development features in PAP1-programmed red Nicotiana tabacum Xanthi via overexpression of synthetic geranyl pyrophosphate synthase genes

We report effects of overexpression of synthetic cDNAs encoding two forms of geranyl pyrophosphate synthase (GPPS) on growth and development performance of P roduction of A nthocyanin P igment 1 ( PAP1 ) gene-programmed tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum Xanthi) plants. Isogenic PAP1-programmed tobacco plants have a new trait that highly expresses anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway in all plant tissues, thus being considered a novel material for different studies. We recently used a homomeric Myzus persicae GPPS ( MpGPPS ) cDNA as a template to synthesize two new cDNA forms, sMpGPPS-HA and PTP-sMpGPPS-HA , which were designed to localize encoded proteins in the cytosol and plastids, respectively. One binary construct containing sMpGPPS-HA , the other binary construct containing PTP-sMpGPPS-HA , and another control construct were introduced to PAP1-programmed plants, respectively. Twenty to twenty-two T0 plants were generated for each construct. Seeds were collected from all plants to select T1 progeny with one single copy of the transgenes. Based on the Mendel law of inheritance, four T0 lines for each construct were identified to contain one single copy of transgene. A large number of T1 progeny from these T0 plants were selected for evaluation of plant development performance. The resulting data showed that the overexpression of each synthetic cDNA significantly enhanced fast growth, increased internodes and leaf numbers, increased leaf sizes, promoted earlier flowering, and approximately doubled plant biomass. This study indicates that a simultaneous enhancement of plant anthocyanin and terpenoid pathways creates novel elite PAP1-programmed plant varieties.