Abstract
Small heat shock proteins are involved in stress tolerance. We previously isolated and characterized a rice cDNA clone, Oshsp26, encoding a chloroplast-localized small heat shock protein that is expressed following oxidative or heat stress. In this study, we transferred this gene to tall fescue plants by an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system. The integration and expression of the transgene was confirmed by PCR, Southern, northern, and immunoblot analyzes. Compared to the control plants, the transgenic plants had significantly lower electrolyte leakage and accumulation of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances when exposed to heat or methyl viologen. The photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) (Fv/Fm) in the transgenic tall fescue plants was higher than that in the control plants during heat stress (42°C). These results suggest that the OsHSP26 protein plays an important role in the protection of PSII during heat and oxidative stress in vivo.
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Acknowledgment
This study was supported by a grant from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (No. PJ008139), Rural Development Administration, and, in part, by a grant from the KRIBB Research Initiative Program (KGM0531113) and the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (KRF-2008-313-F00065), Republic of Korea. SA Sharmin, KH Kim and YG Kim are supported by scholarships, and I Alam is supported by a postdoctoral grant from the BK21 Program at Gyeongsang National University, Republic of Korea.
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Kyung-Hee Kim and Iftekhar Alam have contributed equally to this work.
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Kim, KH., Alam, I., Kim, YG. et al. Overexpression of a chloroplast-localized small heat shock protein OsHSP26 confers enhanced tolerance against oxidative and heat stresses in tall fescue. Biotechnol Lett 34, 371–377 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-011-0769-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-011-0769-3