Overexpression of SBPase enhances photosynthesis against high temperature stress in transgenic rice plants

Activity of the Calvin cycle enzyme sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphatase (SBPase) was increased by overexpression of a rice plants 9,311 (Oryza sativa L.) cDNA in rice plants zhonghua11 (Oryza sativa L.). The genetic engineering enabled the plants to accumulate SBPase in chloroplasts and resulted in enhanced tolerance to high temperature stress during growth of young seedlings. Moreover, CO₂ assimilation of transgenic plants was significantly more tolerant to high temperature than that of wild-type plants. The analyses of chlorophyll fluorescence and the content and activation of SBPase indicated that the enhancement of photosynthesis to high temperature was not related to the function of photosystem II but to the content and activation of SBPase. Western blotting analyses showed that high temperature stress led to the association of SBPase with the thylakoid membranes from the stroma fractions. However, such an association was much more pronounced in wild-type plants than that in transgenic plants. The results in this study suggested that under high temperature stress, SBPase maintained the activation of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase (Rubisco) by preventing the sequestration of Rubisco activase to the thylakoid membranes from the soluble stroma fraction and thus enhanced the tolerance of CO₂ assimilation to high temperature stress. The results suggested that overexpression of SBPase might be an effective method for enhancing high temperature tolerance of plants.     

Salt and paraquat stress tolerance results from co-expression of the Suaeda salsa glutathione S-transferase and catalase in transgenic rice

GST (Glutathione S-transferase, EC 2.5.1.18) and CAT (Catalase, EC 1.11.1.6) play important roles in oxidative stress resistance. In this study, we transferred both GST and CAT1 of Suaeda salsa into rice (Oryza sativa cv. Zhonghua No.11) by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation under the control of cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter, and investigated whether co-expressing the GST and CAT1 in transgenic rice could reduce oxidative damage. Salt and paraquat stresses were applied. The data showed that co-expression of the GST and CAT1 resulted in greater increase of CAT and SOD (Superoxide Dismutase, EC 1.15.1.1) activity in the transgenics compared to non-transgenics following both stress imposition. Whereas the significant increase of GST activity in transgenics only occurred in paraquat stressed plants. While the generation of H₂O₂, Malon dialdehyde and plasma membrane relative electrolyte leakage decreased in the transgenics than in non-transgenics under the same conditions. Moreover, the transgenic rice seedlings showed markedly enhanced tolerance to salt stress compared with non-transgenics upon 200 mM NaCl treatment in greenhouse. The enhancement of the active oxygen-scavenging system that led to increased oxidative stress protection in GST + CAT1-transgenic rice plants could result not only from increased GST and CAT activity but also from the combined increase in SOD activity.     

Enhancement of salt tolerance in transgenic rice expressing an Escherichia coli catalase gene, katE

Rice (Oryza sativa) is sensitive to salt stresses and cannot survive under low salt conditions, such as 50 mM NaCl. In an attempt to improve salt tolerance of rice, we introduced katE, a catalase gene of Escherichia coli, into japonica rice cultivar, Nipponbare. The resultant transgenic rice plants constitutively expressing katE were able to grow for more than 14 days in the presence of 250 mM NaCl, and were able to form flower and produce seeds in the presence of 100 mM NaCl. Catalase activity in the transgenic rice plants was 1.5- to 2.5-fold higher than non-transgenic rice plants. Our results clearly indicate that simple genetic modification of rice to express E. coli-derived catalase can efficiently increase its tolerance against salt stresses. The transformant presented here is one of the most salt-tolerant rice plants created by molecular breeding so far.     

Expression of a calcineurin gene improves salt stress tolerance in transgenic rice

Calcineurin is a Ca²⁺- and calmodulin-dependent serine/threonine phosphatase and has multiple functions in animal cells including regulating ionic homeostasis. We generated transgenic rice plants that not only expressed a truncated form of the catalytic subunit of mouse calcineurin, but also were able to grow and fertilize normally in the field. Notably, the expression of the mouse calcineurin gene in rice resulted in its higher salt stress tolerance than the non-transgenic rice. Physiological studies have indicated that the root growth of transgenic plants was less inhibited than the shoot growth, and that less Na⁺ was accumulated in the roots of transgenic plants after a prolonged period of salt stress. These findings imply that the heterologous calcineurin plays a significant role in maintaining ionic homeostasis and the integrity of plant roots when exposed to salt. In addition, the calcineurin gene expression in the stems of transgenic plants correlated with the increased expression of the Rab16A gene that encodes a group 2-type late-embryogenesis-abundant (LEA) protein. Altogether our findings provide the first genetic and physiological evidence that expression of the mouse calcineurin protein functionally improves the salt stress tolerance of rice partly by limiting Na⁺ accumulation in the roots.     

Enhanced tolerance to salt stress in transgenic rice that overexpresses chloroplast glutamine synthetase

The potential role of photorespiration in the protection against salt stress was examined with transgenic rice plants. Oryza sativa L. cv. Kinuhikari was transformed with a chloroplastic glutamine synthetase (GS2) gene from rice. Each transgenic rice plant line showed a different accumulation level of GS2. A transgenic plant line, G39-2, which accumulated about 1.5-fold more GS2 than the control plant, had an increased photorespiration capacity. In another line, G241-12, GS2 was almost lost and photorespiration activity could not be detected. Fluorescence quenching analysis revealed that photorespiration could prevent the over-reduction of electron transport systems. When exposed to 150 mM NaCl for 2 weeks, the control rice plants completely lost photosystem II activity, but G39-2 plants retained more than 90% activity after the 2-week treatment, whereas G241-12 plants lost these activities within one week. In the presence of isonicotinic acid hydrazide, an inhibitor of photorespiration, G39-2 showed the same salt tolerance as the control plants. The intracellular contents of NH₄ ⁺ and Na⁺ in the stressed plants correlated well with the levels of GS2. Thus, the enhancement of photorespiration conferred resistance to salt in rice plants. Preliminary results suggest chilling tolerance in the transformant.     

Overexpression of the Escherichia coli catalase gene, katE, enhances tolerance to salinity stress in the transgenic indica rice cultivar, BR5

Salinity stress is a major limiting factor in cereal productivity. Many studies report improvements in salt tolerance using model plants, such as Arabidopsis thaliana or standard varieties of rice, e.g., the japonica rice cultivar Nipponbare. However, there are few reports on the enhancement of salt tolerance in local rice cultivars. In this work, we used the indica rice (Oryza sativa) cultivar BR5, which is a local cultivar in Bangladesh. To improve salt tolerance in BR5, we introduced the Escherichia coli catalase gene, katE. We integrated the katE gene into BR5 plants using an Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated method. The introduced katE gene was actively expressed in the transgenic BR5 rice plants, and catalase activity in T₁ and T₂ transgenic rice was approximately 150% higher than in nontransgenic plants. Under NaCl stress conditions, the transgenic rice plants exhibited high tolerance compared with nontransgenic rice plants. T₂ transgenic plants survived in a 200 mM NaCl solution for 2 weeks, whereas nontransgenic plants were scorched after 4 days soaking in the same NaCl solution. Our results indicate that the katE gene can confer salt tolerance to BR5 rice plants. Enhancement of salt tolerance in a local rice cultivar, such as BR5, will provide a powerful and useful tool for overcoming food shortage problems.     

Engineering stress tolerance in transgenic plants

Research in our laboratory has focused on the analysis of the functions of a variety of enzymes that are involved in the scavenging of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) such as superoxide radicals (·O ₂ ⁻ ) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). Recent work has been on transgenic plants that over-express glutathione S-transferases (GST) that also have glutathione peroxidase activity. Transgenic tobacco plants that contain gene constructs that encode two different tobacco GST’s had elevated levels of both GST and GPX activity. Analysis of mature vegetative transgenic tobacco plants that over-express GST/GPX failed to show any increase in paraquat tolerance or protection from photooxidative stress. However, seeds of these GST/GPX-expressing tobacco lines are capable of more rapid germination and seedling growth at low temperatures and at elevated salt concentrations. Reduced levels of lipid peroxidation were noted in GST/GPX-expressing seedling compared to control seedlings under both stressful and non-stressful conditions. In addition, GST/GPX-expressing seedlings significantly accumulated more oxidized glutathione (GSSG) than control seedlings during stress. These characteristics clearly indicate that over-expression of GST/GPX in transgenic seedlings can have substantial effects on their stress tolerance. Furthermore, it appears that this effect is due primarily to the elevated levels of GPX activity.     

Improved tolerance to salinity and low temperature in transgenic tobacco producing glycine betaine

Glycine betaine is an osmoprotectant found in many organisms, including bacteria and higher plants. The bacterium Escherichia coli produces glycine betaine by a two-step pathway where choline dehydrogenase (CDH), encoded by betA, oxidizes choline to betaine aldehyde which is further oxidized to glycine betaine by the same enzyme. The second step, conversion of betaine aldehyde into glycine betaine, can also be performed by the second enzyme in the pathway, betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (BADH), encoded by betB. Transformation of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), a species not accumulating glycine betaine, with the E. coli genes for glycine betaine biosynthesis, resulted in transgenic plants accumulating glycine betaine. Plants producing CDH were found to accumulate glycine betaine as did F1 progeny from crosses between CDH- and BADH-producing lines. Plants producing both CDH and BADH generally accumulated higher amounts of glycine betaine than plants producing CDH alone, as determined by 1H NMR analysis. Transgenic tobacco lines accumulating glycine betaine exhibited increased tolerance to salt stress as measured by biomass production of greenhouse-grown intact plants. Furthermore, experiments conducted with leaf discs from glycine betaine-accumulating plants indicated enhanced recovery from photoinhibition caused by high light and salt stress as well as improved tolerance to photoinhibition under low temperature conditions. In conclusion, introduction of glycine betaine production into tobacco is associated with increased stress tolerance probably partly due to improved protection of the photosynthetic apparatus.     

Flavodoxin displays dose-dependent effects on photosynthesis and stress tolerance when expressed in transgenic tobacco plants

Ferredoxins are iron–sulfur proteins involved in various one-electron transfer pathways. Ferredoxin levels decrease under adverse environmental conditions in photosynthetic organisms. In cyanobacteria, this decline is compensated by induction of flavodoxin, an isofunctional flavoprotein. Flavodoxin is not present in higher plants, but transgenic Nicotiana tabacum lines accumulating Anabaena flavodoxin in plastids display increased tolerance to different sources of environmental stress. As the degree of tolerance correlated with flavodoxin dosage in plastids of nuclear-transformed transgenic tobacco, we prepared plants expressing even higher levels of flavodoxin by direct plastid transformation. A suite of nuclear- and chloroplast-transformed lines expressing a wide range of flavodoxin levels, from 0.3 to 10.8?μmol?m^?2, did not exhibit any detectable growth phenotype relative to the wild type. In the absence of stress, the contents of both chlorophyll a and carotenoids, as well as the photosynthetic performance (photosystem II maximum efficiency, photosystem II operating efficiency, electron transport rates and carbon assimilation rates), displayed a moderate increase with flavodoxin concentrations up to 1.3–2.6?μmol flavodoxin m^?2, and then declined to wild-type levels. Stress tolerance, as estimated by the damage inflicted on exposure to the pro-oxidant methyl viologen, also exhibited a bell-shaped response, with a significant, dose-dependent increase in tolerance followed by a drop in the high-expressing lines. The results indicate that optimal photosynthetic performance and stress tolerance were observed at flavodoxin levels comparable to those of endogenous ferredoxin. Further increases in flavodoxin content become detrimental to plant fitness.     

低温胁迫对嫁接西瓜耐冷性和活性氧清除系统的影响

研究了西瓜实生苗和以黑籽南瓜、超丰F1为砧木的嫁接苗的耐冷性及活性氧清除系统的差异．结果表明,低温胁迫下,嫁接苗的耐冷性明显高于实生苗,表现为以黑籽南瓜为砧木的嫁接苗的耐冷性>以超丰F1为砧木的嫁接苗>实生苗,此外嫁接苗和实生苗均表现为叶片中叶绿素含量下降,丙二醛(MDA)含量上升,非酶促抗氧化剂抗坏血酸(AsA)、谷胱甘肽(GSH)含量和抗氧化酶超氧化物歧化酶(SOD)、抗坏血酸过氧化物酶(AsA-POD)、脱氢抗坏血酸还原酶(DR)活性下降,说明低温逆境降低了植物体防御活性氧有关的酶促和非酶促保护系统能力,提高了体内自由基浓度,加剧了膜脂过氧化．嫁接苗的活性氧清除能力均高于自根苗,且嫁接苗中耐冷性越强的活性氧清除能力越高,说明西瓜嫁接后耐冷性的提高是与植物体内活性氧清除系统中抗氧化剂含量和抗氧化酶活性提高有关。     

Enhanced tolerance of transgenic potato plants expressing both superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase in chloroplasts against oxidative stress and high temperature

Oxidative stress is a major damaging factor for plants exposed to environmental stresses. In order to develop transgenic potato plants with enhanced tolerance to environmental stress, the genes of both Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase were expressed in chloroplasts under the control of an oxidative stress-inducible SWPA2 promoter (referred to as SSA plants). SSA plants showed enhanced tolerance to 250 μM methyl viologen, and visible damage in SSA plants was one-fourth that of non-transgenic (NT) plants that were almost destroyed. In addition, when SSA plants were treated with a high temperature of 42°C for 20 h, the photosynthetic activity of SSA plants decreased by only 6%, whereas that of NT plants decreased by 29%. These results suggest that the manipulation of the antioxidative mechanism of the chloroplasts may be applied in the development of industrial transgenic crop plants with increased tolerance to multiple environmental stresses.Communicated by I. S. Chung     

Wheat puroindolines enhance fungal disease resistance in transgenic rice

Antimicrobial peptides play a role in the immune systems of animals and plants by limiting pathogen infection and growth. The puroindolines, endosperm-specific proteins involved in wheat seed hardness, are small proteins reported to have in vitro antimicrobial properties. Rice, the most widely used cereal crop worldwide, normally does not contain puroindolines. Transgenic rice plants that constitutively express the puroindoline genes pinA and/or pinB throughout the plants were produced. PIN extracts of leaves from the transgenic plants reduced in vitro growth of Magnaporthe grisea and Rhizoctonia solani, two major fungal pathogens of rice, by 35 to 50%. Transgenic rice expressing pinA and/or pinB showed significantly increased tolerance to M. grisea (rice blast), with a 29 to 54% reduction in symptoms, and R. solani (sheath blight), with an 11 to 22% reduction in symptoms. Puroindolines are effective in vivo in antifungal proteins and could be valuable new tools in the control of a wide range of fungal pathogens of crop plants.     

高温胁迫下2个超级杂交稻组合耐受性比较

在抽穗开花期对2个超级杂交稻组合'Y两优1号'和'两优培九'进行了高温胁迫处理,比较研究了这2个超级杂交稻组合对高温胁迫的耐受性.实验结果显示,经高温胁迫后,'Y两优1号'和'两优培九'头季稻的花药开裂系数和花粉可染率均显著下降(P<0.05),结实率则分别下降6.07%和54.48%,千粒重分别下降9.03%和9.98%,'两优培九'的各指标降幅均大于'Y两优1号'.经高温胁迫后,'Y两优1号'和'两优培九'头季稻剑叶中的叶绿素含量较各自的对照分别下降1.18%和3.20%,POD和CAT活性均呈先升高后下降再升高的趋势,MDA含量则呈先下降后升高再下降的趋势,'Y两优1号'的POD和CAT活性总体上高于'两优培九'、MDA含量总体上低于'两优培九'.高温胁迫导致'Y两优1号'和'两优培九'再生稻的活芽率、平均芽长以及单茎腋芽数均显著下降,且后者再生稻各指标的降幅大于前者;高温胁迫对'Y两优1号'和'两优培九' 再生稻的再生率和每穗总粒数的影响不明显,但均使再生稻的结实率和千粒重降低,且'两优培九'再生稻的结实率和千粒重与对照差异显著(P<0.05).高温胁迫对'Y两优1号'和'两优培九'头季稻的热害指数分别为0.19和0.56,对再生稻的热害指数分别为0.04和0.13,差异显著(P<0.05).研究结果表明,在抽穗开花期,'Y两优1号'对高温胁迫的耐受性高于'两优培九',且头季稻耐高温有利于再生芽的生长.     

低温胁迫对转新疆雪莲sikRbcs2基因烟草光合作用的影响

研究分布于新疆的雪莲(Saussurea involucrata)中的sikRbcs2基因在低温条件下对植物光合作用的影响,以16、10、6、4℃温度梯度处理非转基因型和转sikRbcs2基因型烟草,每个温度处理72 h,比较研究其叶绿素荧光特性和光合特性。实验分析结果:低温胁迫下,转基因型烟草叶片叶绿素a(Chla)、叶绿素b(Chlb)、叶绿素a+b(Chla+Chlb)、类胡萝卜素(Car)含量都显著高于非转基因型烟草。叶绿素荧光参数分析:低温胁迫下,转基因烟草PSⅡ最大光化学效率(Fv/Fm)、q P(光化学猝灭系数)、ETR(电子传递效率)都显著或极显著高于非转基因型,光合参数测定:随着低温胁迫程度的加剧,转基因烟草和非转基因型烟草净光合速率(Pn)、气孔导度(Gs)、蒸腾速率(Tr)、胞间CO_2浓度(Ci)总体都呈下降趋势,但转基因烟草的净光合速率有一个明显的动态变化,先急剧下降后有一个稳定上升的趋势。通过对生长指标的测定发现:在低温处理后和恢复后转基因烟草生物量的积累都显著高于非转基因型烟草。研究结果表明:转新疆雪莲sikRbcs2基因的烟草在低温条件下具有较高的Fv/Fm、q P、ETR,对光合机构的损伤小,降低了低温胁迫效应,提高了烟草在低温胁迫条件下的耐受性。