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Overexpression in tobacco of a tomato GMPase gene improves tolerance to both low and high temperature stress by enhancing antioxidation capacity

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Abstract

GDP-mannose pyrophosphorylase (GMPase: EC 2.7.7.22) plays a crucial role in the synthesis of l-ascorbate (AsA) and the consequent detoxification of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Herein, a GMPase (accession ID DQ449030) was identified and cloned from tomato. The full-length cDNA sequence of this gene contains 1,498 bp nucleotides encoding a putative protein with 361 amino acid residues of approximate molecular weight 43 kDa. Northern blot analysis revealed that the GMPase was expressed in all examined tomato tissues, but its expression level was up-regulated in tomato plants subjected to abnormal temperatures. We then overexpressed this tomato GMPase in tobacco plants and observed that the activity of GMPase and the content of AsA were significantly increased by two- to fourfold in the leaves of transgenic tobacco plants. The effect of this gene overexpression was superimposed by the treatments of high or low temperature in tobacco, since the activities of both chloroplastic SOD (superoxide dismutase EC 1.15.1.1), APX (ascorbate peroxidase EC 1.11.1.7) and the content of AsA in leaves were significantly higher in transgenic plants than those of WT, while the contents of H2O2 and O2 −· were reduced. Meanwhile, relative electric conductivity increased less in transgenic plants than that in WT, and the net photosynthetic rate (P n) and the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII (F v/F m) of transgenic plants were notably higher than those of WT under temperature stresses. In conclusion, the overexpression of GMPase increased the content of AsA, thereby leading to the increase in tolerance to temperature stress in transgenic plants.

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Abbreviations

APX:

Ascorbate peroxidase

AsA:

l-Ascorbic acid

Fv/Fm:

The maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII

GMPase :

GDP-d-mannose pyrophosphorylase gene

GMPase:

GDP-d-mannose pyrophosphorylase

Pn:

Net photosynthetic rate

PPFD:

Photosynthetic photon flux density

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Qingwei Meng for the technical assistance during antibody preparation and Northern blotting. This work was supported by Grants from National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2009CB119000)and National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 3077147).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Horticulture, School of Agriculture and Food Science, Zhejiang A and F University, Lin’an, 311300, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Hua-Sen Wang, Chao Yu & Zhu-Jun Zhu

  2. The Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Beijing, 10081, People’s Republic of China

    Xian-Chang Yu

Authors
  1. Hua-Sen Wang
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  2. Chao Yu
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  3. Zhu-Jun Zhu
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  4. Xian-Chang Yu
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Correspondence to Xian-Chang Yu.

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Communicated by K. Chong.

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Wang, HS., Yu, C., Zhu, ZJ. et al. Overexpression in tobacco of a tomato GMPase gene improves tolerance to both low and high temperature stress by enhancing antioxidation capacity. Plant Cell Rep 30, 1029–1040 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-011-1009-y

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