Overexpression of monodehydroascorbate reductase in transgenic tobacco confers enhanced tolerance to ozone,salt and polyethylene glycol stresses

Ascorbate (AsA) is a major antioxidant and free-radical scavenger in plants. Monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDAR; EC 1.6.5.4) is crucial for AsA regeneration and essential for maintaining a reduced pool of AsA. To examine whether an overexpressed level of MDAR could minimize the deleterious effects of environmental stresses, we developed transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing Arabidopsis thaliana MDAR gene (AtMDAR1) in the cytosol. Incorporation of the transgene in the genome of tobacco plants was confirmed by PCR and Southern-blot analysis and its expression was confirmed by Northern- and Western-blot analyses. These transgenic plants exhibited up to 2.1-fold higher MDAR activity and 2.2-fold higher level of reduced AsA compared to non-transformed control plants. The transgenic plants showed enhanced stress tolerance in term of significantly higher net photosynthesis rates under ozone, salt and polyethylene glycol (PEG) stresses and greater PSII effective quantum yield under ozone and salt stresses. Furthermore, these transgenic plants exhibited significantly lower hydrogen peroxide level when tested under salt stress. These results demonstrate that an overexpressed level of MDAR properly confers enhanced tolerance against ozone, salt and PEG stress.     

Cloning, sequence analysis, and purification of choline oxidase from Arthrobacter globiformis: a bacterial enzyme involved in osmotic stress tolerance

Choline oxidase catalyzes the four-electron oxidation of choline to glycine betaine, one of a limited number of compounds that accumulate to high levels in the cytoplasm of cells to prevent dehydration and plasmolysis in adverse hyperosmotic environments. In the present study, the highly GC rich codA gene encoding for choline oxidase was cloned from genomic DNA of Arthrobacter globiformis strain ATCC 8010 and expressed to high yields in Escherichia coli strain Rosetta(DE3)pLysS. The resulting enzyme was purified to high levels in a single chromatographic step using DEAE-Sepharose, as shown by SDS-PAGE analysis. Denaturation and mass spectroscopic analyses showed that the covalent linkage between the FAD cofactor and the protein is preserved in recombinant choline oxidase, consistent with protein flavinylation being a self-catalytic process. The enzyme was shown to be a homodimer of 120,000 Da by size-exclusion chromatography and to be active with both choline and betaine aldehyde as substrate. Sequencing analysis indicated that the nucleotide sequence of codA originally reported in GenBank contains seven flaws, resulting in a translated protein with a significantly altered amino acid sequence between position 298 and 410.     

A tomato glutaredoxin gene SlGRX1 regulates plant responses to oxidative, drought and salt stresses

Glutaredoxins (Grxs) are ubiquitous small heat-stable disulfide oxidoreductases that play a crucial role in plant development and response to oxidative stress. Here, a novel cDNA fragment (SlGRX1) from tomato encoding a protein containing the consensus Grx family domain with a CGFS active site was isolated and characterized. Southern blot analysis indicated that SlGRX1 gene had a single copy in tomato genome. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis revealed that SlGRX1 was expressed ubiquitously in tomato including leaf, root, stem and flower, and its expression could be induced by oxidative, drought, and salt stresses. Virus-induced gene silencing mediated silencing of SlGRX1 in tomato led to increased sensitivity to oxidative and salt stresses with decreased relative chlorophyll content, and reduced tolerance to drought stress with decreased relative water content. In contrast, over-expression of SlGRX1 in Arabidopsis plants significantly increased resistance of plants to oxidative, drought, and salt stresses. Furthermore, expression levels of oxidative, drought and salt stress related genes Apx2, Apx6, and RD22 were up-regulated in SlGRX1-overexpressed Arabidopsis plants when analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. Our results suggest that the Grx gene SlGRX1 plays an important role in regulating abiotic tolerance against oxidative, drought, and salt stresses.     

A B-box zinc finger protein,MdBBX10, enhanced salt and drought stresses tolerance in Arabidopsis

Plant Molecular Biology - The expression of MdBBX10 was significantly induced by different stresses and ABA treatments. Overexpression of MdBBX10 in Arabidopsis significantly enhanced abiotic...     

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     

Methods and concepts in quantifying resistance to drought, salt and freezing, abiotic stresses that affect plant water status

The abiotic stresses of drought, salinity and freezing are linked by the fact that they all decrease the availability of water to plant cells. This decreased availability of water is quantified as a decrease in water potential. Plants resist low water potential and related stresses by modifying water uptake and loss to avoid low water potential, accumulating solutes and modifying the properties of cell walls to avoid the dehydration induced by low water potential and using protective proteins and mechanisms to tolerate reduced water content by preventing or repairing cell damage. Salt stress also alters plant ion homeostasis, and under many conditions this may be the predominant factor affecting plant performance. Our emphasis is on experiments that quantify resistance to realistic and reproducible low water potential (drought), salt and freezing stresses while being suitable for genetic studies where a large number of lines must be analyzed. Detailed protocols for the use of polyethylene glycol-infused agar plates to impose low water potential stress, assay of salt tolerance based on root elongation, quantification of freezing tolerance and the use of electrolyte leakage experiments to quantify cellular damage induced by freezing and low water potential are also presented.     

Overexpression of osmotin gene confers tolerance to salt and drought stresses in transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Abiotic stresses, especially salinity and drought, are major limiting factors for plant growth and crop productivity. In an attempt to develop salt and drought tolerant tomato, a DNA cassette containing tobacco osmotin gene driven by a cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter was transferred to tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Putative T0 transgenic plants were screened by PCR analysis. The selected transformants were evaluated for salt and drought stress tolerance by physiological analysis at T1 and T2 generations. Integration of the osmotin gene in transgenic T1 plants was verified by Southern blot hybridization. Transgenic expression of the osmotin gene was verified by RT-PCR and northern blotting in T1 plants. T1 progenies from both transformed and untransformed plants were tested for salt and drought tolerance by subjecting them to different levels of NaCl stress and by withholding water supply, respectively. Results from different physiological tests demonstrated enhanced tolerance to salt and drought stresses in transgenic plants harboring the osmotin gene as compared to the wild-type plants. The transgenic lines showed significantly higher relative water content, chlorophyll content, proline content, and leaf expansion than the wild-type plants under stress conditions. The present investigation clearly shows that overexpression of osmotin gene enhances salt and drought stress tolerance in transgenic tomato plants.     

Overexpression of an ADP-ribose pyrophosphatase, AtNUDX2, confers enhanced tolerance to oxidative stress in Arabidopsis plants

Mutant pqr-216 from an Arabidopsis activation-tagged line showed a phenotype of increased tolerance to oxidative stress after treatment with 3 μ m paraquat (PQ). Based on the phenotype of transgenic plants overexpressing the genes flanking the T-DNA insert, it was clear that enhanced expression of a Nudix (nucleoside diphosphates linked to some moiety X) hydrolase gene, AtNUDX2 (At5g47650), was responsible for the tolerance. It has been reported that the AtNUDX2 protein has pyrophosphatase activities towards both ADP-ribose and NADH ( Ogawa et al ., 2005 ). Interestingly, the pyrophosphatase activity toward ADP-ribose, but not NADH, was increased in pqr-216 and Pro _35S :AtNUDX2 plants compared with control plants. The amount of free ADP-ribose was lower in the Pro _35S :AtNUDX2 plants, while the level of NADH was similar to those in control plants under both normal conditions and oxidative stress. Depletion of NAD⁺ and ATP resulting from activation of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation under oxidative stress was observed in the control Arabidopsis plants. Such alterations in the levels of these molecules were significantly suppressed in the Pro _35S :AtNUDX2 plants. The results indicate that overexpression of AtNUDX2 , encoding ADP-ribose pyrophosphatase, confers enhanced tolerance of oxidative stress on Arabidopsis plants, resulting from maintenance of NAD⁺ and ATP levels by nucleotide recycling from free ADP-ribose molecules under stress conditions.     

Transformation of Synechococcus with a gene for choline oxidase enhances tolerance to salt stress

Choline oxidase, isolated from the soil bacterium Arthrobacter globiformis, converts choline to glycinebetaine (N-trimethylglycine) without a requirement for any cofactors. The gene for this enzyme, designated codA, was cloned and introduced into the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7942. The codA gene was experssed under the control of a strong constitutive promoter, and the transformed cells accumulated glycinebetaine at intracellular levels of 60–80 mM. Consequently the cells acquired tolerance to salt stress, as evaluated in terms of growth, accumulation of chlorophyll and photosynthetic activity.     

Genetic engineering of the biosynthesis of glycinebetaine leads to increased tolerance of photosynthesis to salt stress in transgenic tobacco plants

Genetically engineered tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) with the ability to synthesis glycinebetaine (GB) in chloroplasts was established by introducing the BADH gene for betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase from spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.). The genetic engineering resulted in enhanced tolerance of growth of young seedlings to salt stress. This increased tolerance was not due to improved water status, since there were no significant differences in accumulation of sodium and chloride, leaf water potential, and relative water content between wild type and transgenic plants under salt stress. Salt stress resulted in a decrease in CO₂ assimilation and such a decrease was much greater in wild type plants than in transgenic plants. Though salt stress showed no damage to PSII, there were a decrease in the maximal PSII electron transport rate in vivo and an increase in non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and these changes were greater in wild type plants than in transgenic plants. In addition, salt stress inhibited the activities of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, chloroplastic fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase, and phosphoribulokinase and such a decrease was also greater in wild type plants than in transgenic plants, suggesting that GB protects these enzymes against salt stress. However, there were no significant changes in the activities of phosphoglycerate kinase, triose phosphate isomerase, ribulose-5-phosphate isomerase, transketolase, and sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphatase in both wild type and transgenic plants. The results in this study suggest that enhanced tolerance of CO₂ assimilation to salt stress may be one of physiological bases for increased tolerance of growth of transgenic plants to salt stress.     

On the contribution of the positively charged headgroup of choline to substrate binding and catalysis in the reaction catalyzed by choline oxidase

Recent kinetic studies established that the positive charge on the trimethylammonium group of choline plays an important role in substrate binding and specificity in the reaction catalyzed by choline oxidase. In the present study, pH and solvent viscosity effects with the isosteric analogue of choline 3,3-dimethyl-butan-1-ol have been used to further dissect the contribution of the substrate positive charge to substrate binding and catalysis in the reaction catalyzed by choline oxidase. Both the kcat and kcat/Km values with 3,3-dimethyl-butan-1-ol increased to limiting values that were approximately 3- and approximately 400-times lower than those observed with choline, defining pKa values that were similar to the thermodynamic pKa value of approximately 7.5 previously determined. No effects of increased solvent viscosity were observed on the kcat and kcat/Km values with the substrate analogue at pH 8, suggesting that the chemical step of substrate oxidation is fully rate-limiting for the overall turnover and the reductive half-reaction in which the alcohol substrate is oxidized to the aldehyde. The kcat/Km value for oxygen determined with the substrate analogue was pH-independent in the pH range from 6 to 10, with an average value that was approximately 75-times lower than that previously determined with choline as substrate. These data are consistent with the positive charge headgroup of choline playing important roles for substrate binding and flavin oxidation, with minimal contribution to substrate oxidation.