Control of plant phenylpropanoid metabolism by heat sensitive promoter

2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 12839001
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 生物資源の変換と展開
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: YAMAKAWA Takashi Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Associate Professor, 大学院・農学生命科学研究科, 助教授 (20134520)
• Project Period (FY): 2000 – 2001
• Keywords: heat sensitive promoter / heat shock promoter / Nicotiana plumbagnifolia / hairy root

Research Abstract

The aim of this research is to control plant secondary metabolism by using heat-shock inducible promoter which is connected to the inserted gene in plant genome. Nicotiana plumbaginifolia was used as a model plant and chilli pepper(Capsicum frutescens) was used for the example of a crop. Chimera genes of Arabidopsis heat-shock protein(HSP)18.2 promoter and β-glucronidase(GUS) gene from E. coli or parsley phenylalanineammonia-lyase(PAL) gene were constructed and they were introduced into the hairy roots of N. plumbaginifolia. Their inducibility by heat shock treatment was investigated. GUS activity was induced by heat shock treatment at 40℃ for 2 hours on hairy roots and this inducibility was stable for 3-5 months. The inducibility was reproduced on 6 days after first heat shock treatment. However, GUS activity showed no change by heat shock treatment at 38-44℃ for 2 hours in hairy roots of chilli pepper. A parsley PAL activity also showed no change after heat shock treatment on hairy roots of N. plumbaginifolia, and sometimes the PAL activity decreased temporaly. These phenomena indicated that induced foreign PAL gene caused a co-supression. Intended increase of PAL activity was not observbed in this experiment, but it can be said that metabolism flux change using co-supression is possible by heat treatment of plant hairy root culture.