Enhanced thermotolerance of by chitooligosaccharides-induced fusion gene.

Heat stress is a major growth-limiting factor for most crops over the world. Chitin elicitor receptor kinase 1 () is a chitin/chitooligosaccharides receptor, and () plays a crucial role in plant resistance to heat stress. In the present study, a chitooligosaccharides-induced fusion gene was designed and synthesized, in which the extracellular domain and transmembrane domain of gene is connected with the response region of gene. We successfully constructed the fusion gene by Overlap PCR and introduced it into by infection. Genetically modified (GM) plants had a greater germination rate and germination index, as well as a shorter mean germination time, indicating that they had a better thermotolerance compared with the wild-type (WT) lines under heat stress. Moreover, the GM lines showed a lower level of hydrogen peroxide (HO) and relative electrolyte leakage (REL), suggesting that they were in better state compared with the WT plants when exposed to high temperature. UPLC-MS/MS was employed to assess the phytohormone level, suggesting that the GM lines acquired a better thermotolerance via jasmonic acid (JA) signaling pathways. In general, we constructed a COS-induced fusion gene to enhance the thermotolerance of during seed germination and postgermination growth.