Soil salinity negatively affects agricultural production in Turkey by decreasing the yield and quality. Direct introduction of stress related genes by genetic engineering is one of the most rapid approaches to develop stress tolerant crops. In this study, TaNHX1 gene was isolated from bread wheat and three different local wheat cultivars were transformed with overexpression vectors containing TaNHX1 gene by using Agrobacterium-mediated and particle bombardment gene transfer techniques. Immature embryo and inflorescence of Triticum durum cv. Kiziltan-91 and Triticum aestivum cv. Y&uuml / regir-89 and mature embryo of Triticum durum cv. Mirzabey-2000 were used as an explant. In this manner, totally 8960 and 5650 explants were used during particle bombardment and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, respectively. Moreover, leaves of Nicotiana tabacum cv. Petit Havana were transformed by TaSTR gene to develop salt resistant transgenic tobacco plants by using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Stable expression and inheritance of the transgenes was confirmed by both genetic and molecular analyses. T1 progeny showed segregation of the transgenes in a typical Mendelian fashion in most of the plants. Expression of TaSTRG in tobacco was evaluated by physiological and biochemical analysis, such as germination test, root length and MDA analysis. In addition to the nuclear transformation, chloroplast transformation of tobacco was performed with Xyl10B gene responsible for the synthesis of hyperthermostable xylanase enzyme. Stable integration of transgenes and homoplasmy were confirmed with PCR and Southern blotting.

Wheat is the most important grain crop grown in our country providing greatest part of the daily nutritional requirement. Abiotic factors including salinity, drought, cold and heat stresses affect quality and yield of wheat varieties used for the production of both bread and pasta flour. NAC proteins form one of the widest families of plant specific transcription factors. Members of this family are related with development, defense and abiotic stress responses. TaNAC69-1 and TtNAM-B2 genes were isolated from T.aestivum and T.turgidum, respectively. Then they were cloned into different monocot and dicot expression vectors to be used for further wheat and tobacco genetic transformation studies. To understand effects of salinity, drought, cold and heat stresses on expression profiles of TaNAC69-1 and TtNAM-B2 genes, quantitative real time PCR was performed. The time series expression profiles of TaNAC69-1 show that it was signi