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Overexpression of the trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase gene OsTPP1 confers stress tolerance in rice and results in the activation of stress responsive genes

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Abstract

Trehalose plays a protective role in yeast and microorganisms under abiotic stresses. However, little is known about its role in higher plants when subjected to environmental challenges. A systematic search of rice databases discovered a large TPS/TPP gene family in the rice genome, which is similar to that found in Arabidopsis thaliana, especially in the gene family structure. Expression analysis demonstrated that OsTPP1 was initially and transiently up-regulated after salt, osmotic and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments but slowly up-regulated under cold stress. OsTPP1 overexpression in rice enhanced tolerance to salt and cold stress. Analysis of the overexpression lines revealed that OsTPP1 triggered abiotic stress response genes, which suggests a possible transcriptional regulation pathway in stress induced reprogramming initiated by OsTPP1. The current study revealed the mechanism of an OsTPP gene involved in stress tolerance in rice and also suggested the use of OsTPP1 in abiotic stress engineering of crops.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

CaMV:

Cauliflower mosaic virus

HPIC:

High-performance ion chromatography

MCS:

Multiple-clone-site

TPP:

Trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase

TPS:

Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase

T-6-P:

Trehalose-6-photophate

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Hongquan Yang for providing pHB vector. We are also grateful to Mr. Mingzhu Lv and Mr. Ning Wang for technical assistance. This work was supported by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2003CB114303, 2006AA10Z1A9), Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX2-YW-N-011) and Science and Technology Committee of Shanghai Municipality (06XD14023). Sequence data from this article can be found in the GenBank data libraries under accession numbers: OsTPP1 from salt tolerance rice variety Nona Bokra (O. sativa L. ssp. Indica) is EU559275.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 300 Fenglin Road, 200032, Shanghai, China

    Liang-Fa Ge, Dai-Yin Chao, Min Shi, Mei-Zhen Zhu, Ji-Ping Gao & Hong-Xuan Lin

  2. Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (D.C.), 19 Yuquan Road, 100039, Beijing, China

    Liang-Fa Ge, Dai-Yin Chao & Hong-Xuan Lin

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  1. Liang-Fa Ge
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Correspondence to Hong-Xuan Lin.

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Liang-Fa Ge and Dai-Yin Chao contributed equally to the paper.

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Ge, LF., Chao, DY., Shi, M. et al. Overexpression of the trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase gene OsTPP1 confers stress tolerance in rice and results in the activation of stress responsive genes. Planta 228, 191–201 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-008-0729-x

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