1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Stress Responses of Arabidopsis Transformed with the Choline Oxidase Gene
| Project/Area Number |
08454258
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
植物生理
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| Research Institution | Ehime University |
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Principal Investigator |
HAYASHI Hidenori Ehime University・Faculty of Science Professor, 理学部, 教授 (60124682)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
OOMAS Kenji National Institute for Environmental Studies・Environmental Biology, Leader, 生物圏環境部, 室長 (70109908)
MORITA Hayato Ehime University・Faculty of Science Research Associate, 理学部, 助手 (50274303)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1996 – 1997
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| Keywords | salt tolerance / low-temperature tolerance / transgenic plants / compatible solute / glycinebetaine / choline oxidase / Arabidopsis thaliana / gene manipulation |
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| Research Abstract |
Some bacteria and plants produce compatible solutes and enhance their salt tolerance when they are exposed to salt and drought stress. Glycinebetaine, a quaternary ammonium compound, is a typical compatible solute found in halotolerant bacteria and plants. In vitro experiments have demonstrated that this compound stabilizes the photosystem II complex at high concentration of NaCl. Choline oxidase of the soil bacterium Arthrobacter globiformis converts choline to glycinebetaine. We introduced the codA gene into Arabidopsis thaliana to enhance the salt tolerance of higher plants. The transformed plant exhibited choline oxidase activity and accumulated glycinebetaine. In the medium containing 80 mM NaCl, seeds of the transformed plants could germinate and resultant cotyledones could continue to grow. After the transformed plants were grown hydroponically in the normal medium they were transferred to the medium containing 200 mM NaCl. Under these conditions, they could continue to grow. Thus we observed that A thaliana transformed with the codA gene enhanced its salt tolerance of at various stages of growth Furthermore, we observed the enhancement of the low-temperature tolerance in the transformed A.thaliana. When mature leaves attached to wild-type plants were exposed to a low temperature, some of leaves became chloroic. By contrast, leaves attached to the transformed plants were undamaged. The germination at low temperature of seeds from transformed plants was faster than that of the wild-type plants. The growth rate of seedlings of transformed plants at 10 ﾟC was higher than that of wild-type plants.
We observed the enhancement of the salt tolerance as well as low-temperature tolerance in the transformed A.thaliana which accumulated glycinebetaine and we could verify the protective effects of glycinebetaine on stress tolerance by genetic manipulation of higher plants.
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Research Products
(12 results)
