Galactinol synthase (GolS) has been known to play a key role in raffinose
biosynthesis by catalyzing the formation of galactinol. The GolS gene family
has been recently identified in various plant species. Among them, many
individual GolS genes have been reported to function in plant stress
tolerance.

The researchers reported the construction of transgenic Arabidopsis
overexpressing a soybean GolS gene, GolS2. There were no significant
differences in the phenotypes of the transgenic and control plants during
normal physiological conditions. The performance of the transgenic plants
was evaluated under various stress conditions in relation to that of the
control plants. The result showed that the overexpression of GmGolS2 gene in
Arabidopsis improved the plant's tolerance to salt stress, but did not
protect the plants against heavy metals and paraquat. The study suggested
that soybean GolS genes could be a potential candidate for genetic
engineering to improve abiotic stress tolerance of plants.

[vietnamscience.vn]