Overexpression of cotton PLATZ transcription factors GhPLATZ01 and GhPLATZ15 improves the drought resistance of tomato

PLATZ transcription factor is a unique zinc finger protein in plants, which plays an important role in plant growth and stress response. In this study, the genes GhPLATZ01 and GhPLATZ15 related to drought stress in upland cotton PLATZ gene family were heterologous expressed in tomato to study their effects on drought resistance of tomato. After drought treatment, wild type(WT) tomato plants withered and lodging, and their growth status was still poor after two days of recovery. Only some leaves of transgenic tomato wilted and resumed growth after two days of recovery. Physiological and biochemical indexes showed that the tomato transformed with GhPLATZ01&15 had higher chlorophyll content, and the relative water content and proline level of transgenic plants were higher after drought treatment, while MDA and conductivity were lower. Enzyme activity analysis revealed that the activity of antioxidant enzymes was significantly improved, while qRT-PCR analysis showed that the expression of antioxidant enzymes and stress response genes increased significantly under drought stress. The results showed that overexpression of GhPLATZ01 and GhPLATZ15 genes significantly improved the drought resistance of tomato. This study further verified the positive regulation of GhPLATZ on drought resistance of plants, and provided valuable genetic resources and theoretical support for cultivating drought-resistant crops.