Beyond just being foot soldiers – osmotin like protein (OLP) and chitinase (Chi11) genes act as sentinels to confront salt, drought, and fungal stress tolerance in tomato

• Transgenic tomato plants were developed for tolerance to both biotic and abiotic stresses by heterologous expression of osmotin like protein (OLP) and chitinase (Chi11) genes.
• Transgenics showed enhanced tolerance to salt, drought, and fungal stresses compared to untransformed controls. Co-Immunoprecipitation revealed that Chi11 co-expresses with phosphofructokinase2 (PFK2), an important enzyme in glycolysis.
• Quantitative real-time PCR results revealed higher expression of OLP, Chi11, and PFK2 under both biotic and abiotic stresses in transgenics.
• Our findings enhance the use of multiple genes to confer stress tolerance. This work unveils a new molecular player PFK2, which may play a role in enhanced root biomass under stress.

Osmotin like protein (OLP) and chitinase (Chi11) belong to pathogenesis-related (PR) class of proteins and are induced during both biotic and abiotic stresses. Transgenic tomato was developed with OLP and Chi11 via in vitro and in planta transformation methods. Transgenes integration and transcript levels were confirmed by multiplex PCR, DNA blot, and multiplex reverse transcriptase PCR. Homozygous T2 transgenics when evaluated for salt, drought, and fungal stresses showed enhanced tolerance compared to untransformed controls (UC). Transgenics showed enhanced endochitinase activity and root biomass under normal conditions. Transformants also displayed higher proline content, K+, relative water content, chlorophyll fluorescence, total biomass, vascular conductivity, and fruit yield than the UC under stress conditions. Co-immunoprecipitation revealed that Chi11 co-expresses with phosphofructokinase2 (PFK2), which may play a role in enhanced root biomass. qPCR analysis resulted in higher transcript levels of OLP, Chi11, and PFK2 in transgenics as compared to the untransformed controls. Our findings suggest the use of multiples genes to confer multiple stress tolerance for enhanced crop productivity. This work unveils a new molecular player PFK2, which may play a role in enhanced root biomass.