Tissue-specific activation of the osmotin gene by ABA,C2H4 and NaCl involves the same promoter region

The gene encoding the antifungal protein osmotin is induced by several hormonal and environmental signals. In this study, tissue-specific and inducer-mediated expression of the reporter gene -glucuronidase (uidA) fused to different fragment lengths of the osmotin promoter was evaluated in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). The region of the promoter between –248 to –108 (Fragment A) was found to be essential and sufficient for inducer (abscisic acid (ABA), C₂H₄ and NaCl)-mediated expression of the reporter gene. Expression of the reporter gene was developmentally regulated and increased with maturity of leaves, stem and flowers. Expression also was tissue-specific being most highly expressed in epidermis and vascular parenchyma of the stem. The regulators ABA, C₂H₄ and NaCl exhibited tissue-specific induction of this promoter. The promoter was specifically responsive to C₂H₄ in flowers at virtually all stages of development, but not responsive in these tissues to ABA or NaCl. Conversely, ABA and NaCl were able to induce reporter gene activity using promoter Fragment A in specific tissues of root where C₂H₄ was unable to induce activity. Further dissection of the promoter Fragment A into fragments containing either the conserved GCC element (PR); PR/AT; or G/AT sequences, and subsequent testing of these fragments fused to GUS in transgenic plants was performed. These experiments revealed that the promoter fragment containing PR element alone, although required, was barely able to allow responsiveness to C₂H₄. However, significant C₂H₄-induced activity was obtained with a promoter fragment containing the AT and PR elements together.     

Lipid changes in tobacco cell suspensions following treatment with cellulase elicitor

Tobacco ( Nicotians tabacum ) KY14 cell cultures have previously been reported to produce capsidiol and other stress metabolites when treated with fungal elicitor or cellulase. Using a new high performance liquid chromatographic technique, we have measured the changes in sesquiterpene phytoalexins and membrane lipid classes thai occur upon elicitation of tobacco cell cultures with cellulase. Measurable levels of capsidiol and debneyol were found in the tobacco cells and in the culture medium after 8 h of elicitor treatment, with levels continuing to increase for up to 24 h. For the duration of the experiments, the levels of most of the galactolipids and phospholipids were found to decrease in elicited cells and increase in control cells. The most striking change was a rapid decrease in the level of digalactosyldiacylglycerol in elicited cells, to less than 10% of the level in control cells. Among the sterol lipid classes, the most notable changes occurred in the levels of sterol esters and acylated sterol glycosides, which increased significantly in elicited cells within 2 to 4 h after addition of cellulase, but remained unchanged in control cells. Free sterols and sterol glycosides declined slightly, while free fatty acids dropped to low levels 24 h after treatment of cells with cellulase. The present results and those of previous studies indicate that esterification of phytosterols may be a widespread response to environmental or chemical stress.     

Induction of pathogen resistance and pathogenesis-related genes in tobacco by a heat-stable Trichoderma mycelial extract and plant signal messengers

Heat-stable mycelial extracts of the nonpathogenic fungus Trichoderma longibrachiatum induced resistance in tobacco seedlings ( Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. Wisconsin 38) to the pathogen Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae (race 0), which did not involve a hypersensitive response. Resistance could not be induced with mycelial extract prepared in the same manner from P. parasitica . The nonpathogenic mycelial extract induced expression of PR-1b and osmotin (PR-5) genes to a higher level than did mycelial extract from the pathogenic fungus. The tissue-specific pattern of PR gene induction by the nonpathogenic mycelial extract was different from that of the pathogenic mycelial extract and was consistent with the ability of the former to cause disease resistance. The expression patterns of these two PR genes and the accumulations of their encoded proteins also were affected by salicylic acid (SA), methyl jasmonate (MeJA), ethylene (E) and combinations of these plant signal messengers. However, only combined SA and MeJA treatment mimicked the pattern of PR gene mRNA and protein accumulation induced by the nonpathogenic mycelial extract. E inhibitors blocked both mycelial extract-induced and SA/MeJA-induced PR gene expression, and the cis pattern of responsiveness on the osmotin promoter was the same for the mycelial extract, SA, E, or E/MeJA. Seedlings treated with P. parasitica spores in the presence of SA/MeJA were protected from pathogen colonization. However, these seedlings exhibited symptoms of cell death (disease symptoms) both in the absence and presence of P. parasitica spores, in contrast to seedlings treated with nonpathogenic mycelial extract, which remained healthy. These results suggest that the signal transduction pathways for elicitation of defense responses by exogenously applied heat-stable nonpathogenic mycelial extract and SA/MeJA overlap at the point of PR protein induction but are not identical.     

The overexpression of an alternative oxidase gene triggers ozone sensitivity in tobacco plants

The alternative oxidase (AOX) of plant mitochondria transfers electrons from the ubiquinione pool to oxygen without energy conservation and prevents the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) when the ubiquinone pool is over-reduced. Thus, AOX may be involved in plant acclimation to a number of oxidative stresses. To test this hypothesis, we exposed wild-type (WT) Xanthi tobacco plants as well as Xanthi plants transformed with the Bright Yellow tobacco AOX1a cDNA with enhanced (SN21 and SN29), and decreased (SN10) AOX capacity to an acute ozone (O3) fumigation. As a result of 5 h of O3 exposition (250 nL L(-1)), SN21 and SN29 plants surprisingly showed localized leaf damage, whereas SN10, similarly to WT plants, was undamaged. In keeping with this observation, WT and SN21 plants differed in their response to O3)for the expression profiles of catalase 1 (CAT1), catalase 2 (CAT2), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) genes, and for the activity of these antioxidant enzymes, which were induced in WT. Concomitantly, although ozone induced H2O2 accumulation in WT and in all transgenic lines, only in transgenics with high AOX capacity the H2O2 level in the post-fumigation period was high. The alternative pathway of WT plants was strongly stimulated by O3, whereas in SN21 plants, the respiratory capacity was always high across the treatment. The present results show that, far from exerting a protective role, the overexpression of AOX triggers an increased O3 sensitivity in tobacco plants. We hypothesize that the AOX overexpression results in a decrease of mitochondrial ROS level that in turn alters the defensive mitochondrial to nucleus signalling pathway that activates ROS scavenging systems.     

大豆fad基因反义表达载体构建及转化烟草研究

使用PCR方法从大豆基因组DNA中扩增出大豆油酸脱饱和酶基因fad2-1,连接到pMD18-T载体中,转化大肠杆菌JM109菌株.测序后,用DNAstar软件进行同源性比对.然后将正确的序列反向克隆到表达载体pBt,并转化农杆菌菌株LBA4404,经双酶切鉴定和PCR扩增检测,获得具有该基因反向序列的农杆菌工程菌,转化...     

Comparison of bacterial and plant genes participating in proline biosynthesis with Osmotin gene, with respect to enhancing salinity tolerance of transgenic tobacco plants

In an attempt to increase tolerance to salinity stress in tobacco plants, the genes encoding the mutant form of glutamyl kinase (proB), pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase, and osmotin were cloned into three different shuttle vectors and were separately introduced into the tobacco plants. The transgenic lines were compared for their ability to produce shoots and grow in MS medium containing 320 mM NaCl; it was shown that the transgenic lines containing genetically handled osmotin gene are more resistant to salinity. The amount of chlorophyll a was used to show continuing growth of plant lines. The results showed that only the tobacco lines transformed with the modified osmotin gene exhibited greater tolerance to salinity. Published in Russian in Fiziologiya Rastenii, 2006, Vol. 53, No. 1, pp. 122–127. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Can Salicylic Acid Affect the Intercellular Transport of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus by Changing Plasmodesmal Permeability?

We studied the effects of salicylic acid (SA) on the plasmodesmal permeability as evaluated by the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) spreading in tobacco Nicotiana glutinosaleaves, where TMV induces necrotic lesions. When leaves were treated with SA simultaneously with their viral inoculation, SA retarded the development of necrotic lesions and reduced their number. When inoculated leaves were kept on the SA solution at an elevated temperature (31°C) for a short period of time, the size of the necrotic lesions, which developed after leaf transfer to room temperature, was decreased. SA stimulated the formation of rapid callose involved in the control of the plasmodesmal permeability, which was assessed from fluorescence after tissue staining with Aniline Blue. On the basis of these data, we suggest that SA suppressed TMV spreading in the inoculated tobacco leaves by reducing the plasmodesmal permeability.     

Meiotic stability of transgene expression is unaffected by flanking matrix-associated regions

DNA repeats are associated with gene instability and silencing phenomena in plants. Therefore, the presence of a direct repeat of matrix-associated region (MAR) DNA, that considerably reduced position effects between independent transformants, may increase (epi)genetic instability. To investigate the influence of such a repeat on the stability of the expression of embedded transgenes, the meiotic stability of transgene expression was assessed in eighteen homozygous 1-locus transgenic tobacco lines carrying the kanamycin resistance (NPTII) and the -glucuronidase (GUS) gene. Half of the lines carry a 3 kb direct repeat of MAR DNA flanking the transgenes. Large progeny populations, totalling over a million seedlings, were screened for kanamycin resistance with the help of a newly developed high-density seedling screen. Kanamycin-sensitive seedlings were detected in selfed progeny at a frequency of 0.5-5.9×10^-4. The frequency became as high as 2×10^-2 when embryo development occurred under heat and/or drought stress. In backcrossed progeny only, a joint loss of NPTII and GUS gene expression was observed at an average frequency of 2.9×10^-5. In selfed and backcrossed progeny we observed similar frequencies of reversion to kanamycin sensitivity, indicating that epigenetic silencing mechanisms rather than MAR repeat-related homologous recombination underlie the reversal to kanamycin sensitivity. Different lines, hence different areas of the tobacco genome, differed in their genetic stability. No significant differences in reversal frequencies were apparent between lines with or without the MAR elements. The use of the MAR repeat is, therefore, not compromised by any increased (epi)genetic instability.     

Hybrid genes in the analysis of transformation conditions: II. Transient expression vs stable transformation—analysis of parameters influencing gene expression levels and transformation efficiency

Reports on direct gene transfer have dealt with either the obtention of stable transformants and transgenic plants, or described the use of reporter genes to analyse different aspects of gene expression in plant protoplasts and conditions for their use in transient gene expression assays.
In this paper we present comparisons between several transformation techniques, show species-specific differences in efficiencies of stable transformants and in the levels of transient gene expression, and report on the identification of major parameters responsible for DNA uptake as judged from transient chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) expression levels and from efficiencies of transformation based on kanamycin-resistance. The described procedures have been simplified, optimized and standardized and should allow routine use with a great variety of plant species.     

Hepatitis B surface antigen expression in NT-1 cells of tobacco using different expression cassettes

Nicotiana tabacum 1 (NT-1) cells were transformed with four different expression cassettes of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). The transformed nature of the cells was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The expression levels were assayed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The expressivities varied among the different cassettes and the maximum expression of 16.6 ng g⁻¹(f.m.) of cells was noted in pEFEHER transformed cells. Salicylic acid (100 μM) treatment resulted in 1.8 fold increase of expression in pEFEHBS transformed cells. The effect of different concentrations of kanamycin and geneticin was studied on the growth of transformed cells and HBsAg expression. The cell growth was optimum at lower concentrations of the antibiotics, and the maximum expression was noted at 200 mg dm⁻³ of kanamycin.