Over-expression of heat shock protein gene hsp26 in Arabidopsis thaliana enhances heat tolerance

Abstract

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the molecular chaperone HSP26 has the remarkable ability to sense increases in temperature directly and can switch from an inactive to a chaperone-active state. In this report, we analyzed the effect of expression of HSP26 in Arabidopsis thaliana plants and their response to high temperature stress. The hsp26 transgenic plants exhibited stronger growth than wild type plants at 45 °C for 16 h. The chlorophyll content and chlorophyll fluorescence decreased much more in wild type than in transgenic plants. Moreover, the transgenic plants had higher proline and soluble sugar contents, and lower relative electrical conductivity and malondialdehyde contents after high temperature stress. Furthermore, we found that over-expression of HSP26 in Arabidopsis increased the amount of free proline, elevated the expression of proline biosynthetic pathway genes and therefore enhanced Arabidopsis tolerance to heat stress.Additional key words: high temperature stress, transgenic plants, yeast gene.

Effect of abscisic acid on heat stress tolerance in the calli from two ecotypes of Phragmites communis

“…Previous studies have revealed that heat stress was accompanied by growth suppression (Vierling 1991, Xue et al 2010. Our data showed that growth rate was more reduced in SR callus than that in DR callus, suggesting that DR callus was more resistant to growth suppression imposed by heat stress than SR callus (Fig.…”

“…2B). Moreover, it has been reported that heat stress induced oxidative stress in plant, which resulted in cellular membrane injuries, solute and electrolyte leakage (Doke et al 1994), the accumulation of H 2 O 2 (Doke et al 1994) and MDA (Smirnoff 1995, Xue et al 2010. The relative growth rate measurement, ion leakage and relative cell viability assay have been commonly used to distinguish heat-tolerant and heat-sensitive genotypes of many plant species (Kuo et al 1992).…”

“…The effects of high temperature on plants include many physiological and biochemical changes, including oxidative stress (Larkindale and Knight 2002, Xue et al 2010, protein denaturation and aggregation (Salvucci et al 2001), and cell structural disruptions (Suss and Yordanov 1986).…”

ZmHSP16.9, a cytosolic class I small heat shock protein in maize (Zea mays), confers heat tolerance in transgenic tobacco

“…Overexpression of HSP26 in transgenic Arabidopsis enhanced thermotolerance due to increased amount of free proline caused by the elevated proline biosynthetic pathway genes (Xue et al 2010). Transgenic rice plants with increased levels of sHSP17.7 protein exhibited significantly increased thermotolerance and UV-B tolerance compared to untransformed control plants (Murakami et al 2004).…”

Transformation with a gene for myo-inositol O-methyltransferase enhances the cold tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana

“…Eleven transgenic plants with Imt1 were obtained, and transgenic plants of the T 2 generation were confirmed by β-glucuronidase (GUS) stain and PCR detection similarly as Xue et al (2010). We selected three transgenic lines (named N1, N2, and N3, corresponding to lanes 2, 3, and 4, respectively, in Fig.…”