CLONING AND EXPRESSION OF UNIVERSAL STRESS PROTEIN 2 (USP2) GENE IN ESCHERICHIA COLI

Different types of abiotic stresses inhibit the normal growth of plants by changing their physical biochemical, morphological, and molecular traits. It links to the polygenic traits, which is controlled with the help of different genes, due to this polygenetic the manipulation of foreign genetic makeup is very difficult. Drought stress is the very major type of threat to reduce the yield of cash crops in Pakistan and as well as in all over the world. Gene manipulation is the solution to face this problem by producing genetically modified crop plants that have the ability to survive in drought conditions. Universal stress protein gene has been already identified in bacteria which showed its response under stressed conditions, by manipulation of universal stress protein gene. It was found from our study that the bacterial cells transformed with the USP2 gene isolated from cotton induced abiotic stress tolerance under heat, osmotic, and salt stress. It was suggested from our findings that the USP2 gene could be used to produce abiotic stress tolerance transgenic crop plants to enhance crop plant yield and quality.