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Simultaneous suppression of three genes related to brassinosteroid (BR) biosynthesis altered campesterol and BR contents, and led to a dwarf phenotype in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

We generated transgenic lines of Arabidopsis thaliana with an RNA interference construct that expressed hairpin double-stranded RNA for DET2:DWF4:SMT2 to induce sequence-specific RNA silencing. In transgenic plants, expressions of DET2, DWF4, and SMT2 were simultaneously reduced, and the campesterol content was increased by up to 420% compared to the level in the wild-type plant. Triple knock-down of the DET2, DWF4, and SMT2 enzymes also resulted in reduction of brassinosteroid (BR)-specific biosynthesis intermediates. Transgenic plants harboring the RNA interference construct displayed a semi-dwarf phenotype due to altered development. Our findings indicate that redesigning of plant architecture is possible through simultaneous suppression of multiple genes involved in BR biosynthesis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation through the Plant Metabolism Research Center of Kyung Hee University. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan to S. F. (Grant No. 19380069). We also thank Dr. Suguru Takatsuto (Joetsu University of Education) for supplying deuterium-labeled internal standards.

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Correspondence to In Sik Chung.

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Communicated by J. R. Liu.

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Chung, H.Y., Fujioka, S., Choe, S. et al. Simultaneous suppression of three genes related to brassinosteroid (BR) biosynthesis altered campesterol and BR contents, and led to a dwarf phenotype in Arabidopsis thaliana . Plant Cell Rep 29, 397–402 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-010-0830-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-010-0830-z

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