Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Constitutive expression of Arabidopsis DREB1B in transgenic potato enhances drought and freezing tolerance

  • Original Papers
  • Published:
Biologia Plantarum

Abstract

DNA cassette consisting of an Arabidopsis dehydration-responsive element binding factor 1 (DREB1B) cDNA, driven by a cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter, was introduced into potato plants (Solanum tuberosum L.) through Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated gene transfer. The presence and expression of the gene in transgenic plants were confirmed by the PCR and RT-PCR techniques, respectively. Northern hybridization using a DREB1B cDNA probe revealed high levels of DREB1B expression among the most transgenic lines. Overexpression of DREB1B imparted a significant freezing and drought tolerance gain in the transgenic potato lines. In comparison with the wild-type plants, the transgenic potatoes contained higher proline content under drought and freezing conditions, and maintained their relative water content higher under water stress. The enhancement of tolerance in transgenic potato highlights the presence of genes responding to the transcription factor DREB1B in this plant.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

bp:

base pair

DREB:

dehydration responsive element binding protein

PCR:

polymerase chain reaction

SR:

survival rate

WC:

water content per dry mass unit

References

  • Achard, P., Gong, F., Cheminant, S., Alioua, M., Hedden, P., Genschik, P.: The cold-inducible CBF1 factor-dependent signaling pathway modulates the accumulation of the growth-repressing DELLA proteins via its effect on gibberellin metabolism. — Plant Cell 20: 2117–2129, 2008.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Agarwal, P.K., Agarwal, P., Reddy, M.K., Sopory, S.K.: Role of DREB transcription factors in abiotic and biotic stress tolerance in plants. — Plant Cell Rep. 25: 1263–1274, 2006.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Angell, S.M., Baulcombe, D.C.: Consistent of gene silencing in transgenic plants expressing a replicating potato virus X RNA. — EMBO J. 16: 3675–3684, 1997.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee, A.K., Prat, S., Hannapel, D.: Efficient production of transgenic potato (S. tuberosum L. ssp. andigena) plants via Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. — Plant Sci. 170: 732–738, 2006.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bates, L.S.: Rapid determination of free proline for water stress studies. — Plant Soil 39: 205–207, 1973.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Behnam, B., Kikuchi, A., Celebi-Toprak, F., Kasuga, M., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., Watanabe, K.: Arabidopsis rd29A:DREB1A enhances freezing tolerance in transgenic potato. — Plant Cell Rep. 26: 1275–1282, 2007.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bhatnagar-Mathur, P., Devi, M.J., Reddy, D.S., Lavanya, M., Vadez, V., Serraj, R., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., Sharma, K.K.: Stress-inducible expression of AtDREB1A in transgenic peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) increases transpiration efficiency under water-limiting conditions. — Plant Cell Rep. 26: 2071–2082, 2007.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Celebi-Toprak, F., Behnam, B., Serrano, G., Kasuga, M., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., Naka, H., Watanabe, J.A., Yamanaka, S., Watanabe, K.N.: Tolerance to salt stress in transgenic tetrasomic tetraploid potato, Solanum tuberosum cv. Desiree appears to be induced by DREB1A gene and rd29A promoter of Arabidopsis thaliana. — Breed Sci. 55: 311–320, 2005.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gilmour, S.J., Fowler, S.G. Thomashow, M.F.: Arabidopsis transcription activators CBF1, CBF2 and CBF3 have matching functional activities. — Plant mol. Biol. 54: 767–781, 2004.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gilmour, S.J., Sebolt, A.M., Salazar, M.P., Everard, J.D. Thomashow, M.F.: Overexpression of the Arabidopsis CBF3 transcriptional activator mimics multiple biochemical changes associated with cold acclimation. — Plant Physiol. 124: 1854–1865, 2000.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hoekstra, F.A., Golovina, E.A. Buitink, J.: Mechanisms of plant desiccation tolerance. — Trends Plant Sci. 6: 431–438, 2001.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh, T.H., Lee, J.T., Charng, Y.Y., Chan, M.T.: Tomato plants ectopically expression Arabidopsis CBF1 show enhanced resistance to water deficit stress. — Plant Physiol. 130: 618–626, 2002a.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh, T.H., Lee, J.T., Yang, P.T., Chiu, L.H., Charng, Y.Y., Wang, Y.C. Chan, M.T.: Heterology expression of the Arabidopsis C-repeat/dehydration response element binding factor 1 gene confers elevate tolerance to chilling and oxidative stress in transgenic tomato. — Plant Physiol. 129: 1086–1094, 2002b.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, X.J., Zhang, Z.B., Xu, P., Fu, Z.Y., Hu, S.B., Song, W.Y.: Multifunctional genes: the cross-talk among the regulation network of abiotic stress responses. — Biol. Plant. 54: 213–223, 2010.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jaglo, K.R., Kleff, S., Amundsen, K.L., Zhang, X., Haake, V., Zhang, J.Z., Deits, T., Thomashow, M.F.: Components of Arabidopsis C-repeat/dehydration responsive element binding factor cold-responsive pathways are conserved in Brassica napus and other plant species. — Plant Physiol. 127: 910–917, 2001.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • James, A.V., Neibaur, I., Altpeter, F.: Stress inducible expression of the DREB1A transcription factor from xeric, Hordeum spontaneum L. in turf and forage grass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) enhances abiotic stress tolerance. — Transgenic Res. 17: 93–104, 2008.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jefferson, R.A., Kavanagh, T.A., Bevan, M.W.: GUS fusions; beta-glucuronidase as a sensitive and versatile gene fusion marker in higher plants. — EMBO J. 6: 3901–3907, 1987.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jeong, M.J., Park, S.C., Byun, M.O.: Improvement of salt tolerance in transgenic potato plants by glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene transfer. — Mol. Cells 12: 185–189, 2001.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jin, T., Chang, Q., Li, W., Yin, D., Li, Z., Wang, D., Liu, B., Liu, L.: Stress-inducible expression of GmDREB1 conferred salt tolerance in transgenic alfalfa. — Plant Cell Tissue Organ Cult. 100: 219–227, 2009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kasuga, M., Miura, S., Shinozaki, K., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K.: A combination of the Arabidopsis DREB1A gene and stress-inducible rd29A promoter improved drought- and low-temperature stress tolerance in tobacco by gene transfer. — Plant Cell Physiol. 45: 346–350, 2004.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, S.C., Huh, K.W, An, K., An, G., Kim, S.R.: Ectopic expression of a cold-inducible transcription factor, CBF1/DREB1B, in transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L.). — Mol. Cells 18: 107–114, 2004.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nakashima, K., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K.: Regulons involved in osmotic stress-responsive and cold stress-responsive gene expression in plants. — Physiol. Plant. 126: 62–71, 2006.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pellegrineschi, A., Reynolds, M., Pacheco, M., Brito, R.M., Almeraya, R., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., Hoisington, D.: Stress-induced expression in wheat of the Arabidopsis thaliana DREB1A gene delays water stress symptoms under greenhouse conditions. — Genome 47: 493–500, 2004.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rensink, W., Hart, A., Liu, J., Ouyang, Sh., Zismann, V., Robin, Buell, C.: Analyzing the potato abiotic stress transcriptome using expressed sequence tags. — Genome 48: 598–605, 2005.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Richards, R.A., Rebetzke, G.J., Condon, A.G., Herwaarden, A.F.: Breeding opportunities for increasing the efficiency of water use and crop yield in temperate cereals. — Crop Sci. 42: 111–121, 2002.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tong, Z., Hong, B., Yang, Y., Li, Q., Ma, N., Ma, C., Gao, J.: Overexpression of two chrysanthemum DgDREB1 group genes causing delayed flowering or dwarfism in Arabidopsis. — Plant mol. Biol. 71: 115–129, 2009.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Umezawa, T., Fujita, M., Fujita, Y., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., Shinozaki, K.: Engineering drought tolerance in plants: discovering and tailoring genes to unlock the future. — Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 17: 113–122, 2006.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xiong, L., Schumaker, K.S., Zhu, J.K.: Cell signaling during cold, drought and salt stress. — Plant Cell. 14: 165–183, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., Shinozaki, K.: A novel cis-acting element in an Arabidopsis gene is involved in responsiveness to drought, low-temperature, or high-salt stress. — Plant Cell 6: 251–264, 1994.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, S., Vanderbeld, B., Wan, J., Huang, Y.: Narrowing down the targets: towards successful genetic engineering of drought-tolerant crops. — Mol. Plant. 3: 469–490, 2010.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, J.Z., Creelman, R.A., Zhu, J.K.: From laboratory to field using information from Arabidopsis to engineer salt, cold, and drought tolerance in crops. — Plant Physiol. 135: 615–621, 2004.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 84156-83111, Iran

    S. Movahedi, B. E. Sayed Tabatabaei, C. Ghobadi & G. Khaksar

  2. Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    H. Alizade

  3. Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Gorgan University of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

    A. Yamchi

Authors
  1. S. Movahedi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. B. E. Sayed Tabatabaei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. H. Alizade
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. C. Ghobadi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. A. Yamchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. G. Khaksar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to B. E. Sayed Tabatabaei.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Movahedi, S., Sayed Tabatabaei, B.E., Alizade, H. et al. Constitutive expression of Arabidopsis DREB1B in transgenic potato enhances drought and freezing tolerance. Biol Plant 56, 37–42 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-012-0013-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-012-0013-6

Additional key words

Search

Navigation