Heterologous expression of Arabidopsis ERS1 causes delayed senescence in coriander

Abstract

The phytohormone ethylene is involved in many developmental processes, including leaf and flower senescence. Ethylene is perceived by plants through receptors that trigger the downstream signal transduction pathway. The mutated ethylene receptor ERS1 (ethylene response sensor) from Arabidopsis is of a dominant negative nature and confers ethylene insensitivity in Arabidopsis. To investigate if the altered ERS1 gene can affect the tissue senescence in heterologous plants, we introduced it into coriander by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Transgenic plants were regenerated by cocultivating hypocotyl segments with A. tumefaciens harboring binary vector pCGN1547 that carried the ERS1 gene. The presence and expression of the transgene were confirmed by genomic Southern blot and reverse transcriptase-PCR analyses. Leaf and flower senescence were delayed significantly in the transgenic plants. The ability of the mutated ERS1 gene to confer the ethylene-insensitive phenotype can be exploited for extending the shelf-life of leafy vegetables.

Role of ethylene receptors during senescence and ripening in horticultural crops

“…Dendrobium "Pompadour", one of the most important commercial orchids in Thailand is an ethylene sensitive variety and has relatively short vase life. A subfamily one ethylene receptor, ERS1, lacking a receiver domain was found in Dendrobium with a single copy in the genome by Thongkum et al (2009). 96 However, the possibility of presence of anther ethylene receptor gene cannot be ruled out.…”

“…During the flower development the expression of Den-ERS1 declined as the senescence progressed and the ethylene production was enhanced suggesting the receptors to be negative regulators of ethylene signaling during natural course of senescence. 96 Geranium. Two ethylene receptors, PhETR1 and PhETR2 are deduced till date, though there is scope for more receptors to be decoded.…”

Production of male sterile transgenic plants

“…Additionally, the yellowing of leaves during senescence in these transgenic tobacco plants was delayed, in comparison to the wild type. These results suggest that both mutant genes conferred reduced ethylene sensitivity to transgenic plants, just as the expression of ethylene receptor genes in heterologous plants conferred insensitivity or reduced sensitivity to ethylene in several plant species (Bovy et al 1999;Chen et al 2004;Knoester et al 1998;Shaw et al 2002;Wang and Kumar, 2004;Wilkinson et al 1997).…”

“…However, the transformants also showed pleiotropic phenotypes, such as slower plant growth, shorter plant height, and late bolting. The heterologous expression of a mutated Arabidopsis ERS1 (Hua et al 1995) caused delayed senescence in coriander (Wang and Kumar 2004). Thus, although mutated ethylene receptor genes have been introduced into a variety of plants, it was thought in many cases that these genes were only useful for extending the life span of transformants.…”

In vitro regeneration of wild chervil (Anthriscus sylvestris L.)

“…While there are no reports on regeneration of A. sylvestris, regeneration of the following members of the Apiaceae family has been documented: Daucus carota (Steward et al 1958), Apium graveolens (Catlin et al 1988), Thapsia garganica (Jäger et al 1993) , Pimpinella anisum (Salem and Charlwood 1995), Ammi majus (Purohit et al 1995), Carum carvi (Krens et al 1997), Coriandrum sativum (Wang and Kumar 2004), and Dorem ammoniacum (Irvani et al 2010). …”