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Overexpression of an Arabidopsis β-glucosidase gene enhances drought resistance with dwarf phenotype in creeping bentgrass

Plant Cell Reports volume 31, pages 1677–1686 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

An Arabidopsis β-glucosidase, AtBG1 is known to hydrolyze glucose-conjugated, biologically inactive abscisic acid (ABA) to produce active ABA, which increases the level of ABA in plants. Since an increase of ABA in plants confers tolerance against abiotic stress such as drought, we introduced the pCAMBIA3301 vector harboring the AtBG1 gene into creeping bentgrass through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. After transformation, putative transgenic plants were selected using the BASTA resistance assay at a concentration of 0.8 %. Genomic integration of the AtBG1 gene was confirmed by genomic PCR and Southern blot analysis, and gene expression was validated by Northern blot and Western blot analyses. Interestingly, the transgenic bentgrass plants overexpressing AtBG1 had a dwarf phenotype with reduced growth rates when compared to wild-type creeping bentgrass. In addition, the transgenic plants accumulated higher ABA levels and displayed enhanced drought tolerance. These results suggest that the expression of AtBG1 in plants induces the accumulation of higher ABA levels, which results in the formation of dwarf creeping bentgrass and enhances the survival in water-limiting environments.

Key message We used an Arabidopsis β-glucosidase AtBG1 to engineer a crop with elevated active ABA levels, and developed transgenic creeping bentgrass with enhanced drought tolerance and dwarf phenotype.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Kumho Life Science Laboratory in Chonnam National University for providing plant growth facilities. This work was supported by Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea (PJ007978042011), and by Technology Development Program for Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of Korea (Grant # 309017-5).

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology and Kumho Life Science Laboratory, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, 500-757, Korea

    Yun-Jeong Han, Kyu-Chang Cho, Ok-Jin Hwang, Yun-Sung Choi, Ah-Young Shin & Jeong-Il Kim

  2. Division of Molecular and Life Sciences, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea

    Inhwan Hwang

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  1. Yun-Jeong Han
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  2. Kyu-Chang Cho
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  4. Yun-Sung Choi
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  5. Ah-Young Shin
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  6. Inhwan Hwang
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  7. Jeong-Il Kim
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Correspondence to Jeong-Il Kim.

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Communicated by J. R. Liu.

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Han, YJ., Cho, KC., Hwang, OJ. et al. Overexpression of an Arabidopsis β-glucosidase gene enhances drought resistance with dwarf phenotype in creeping bentgrass. Plant Cell Rep 31, 1677–1686 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-012-1280-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-012-1280-6

Keywords

  • AtBG1
  • β-Glucosidase
  • Creeping bentgrass
  • Transformation
  • Drought tolerance
  • Dwarf