UV Inducible Transient Expression of Chimeric CHS-NPTII in Parsley Proto — Plasts

Abstract

Light is a very important effector for differentiation in plant development. One of the most intensivly studied regulatory effects of (UV B)-light on specific metabolic pathways is the induction of flavonoid biosynthesis (Kreuzaler et al., 1983). Flavonoids are abundant in higher plants and function as flower pigments and UV protective compounds. Cultured parsley cells respond to UV irradiation by cellular accumulation of potentially UV protective flavonoids. The UV irradiation stimulates signal specific transcription and synthesis of chalcone synthase (CHS), the key enzyme of flavonoid pathway, and several other specific enzymes. We demonstrated that isolated parsley suspension protoplasts maintain fully the ability to be stimulated by UV light or other environmental factors as fungal elicitor (Dangl et al., 1987). This made the protoplasts an ideal system of reduced complexity to study inducible endogenous genes as well as exogenous transfected genes rapidly studied via transient expression.