A DNA cassette containing an Arabidopsis C repeat/dehydration-responsive element binding factor 1 (CBF1) cDNA and a nos terminator, driven by a cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter, was transformed into the tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) genome. These transgenic tomato plants were more resistant to water deficit stress than the wild-type plants. The transgenic plants exhibited growth retardation by showing dwarf phenotype, and the fruit and seed numbers and fresh weight of the transgenic tomato plants were apparently less than those of the wild-type plants. Exogenous gibberellic acid treatment reversed the growth retardation and enhanced growth of transgenic tomato plants, but did not affect the level of water deficit resistance. The stomata of the transgenic CBF1 tomato plants closed more rapidly than the wild type after water deficit treatment with or without gibberellic acid pretreatment. The transgenic tomato plants contained higher levels of Pro than those of the wild-type plants under normal or water deficit conditions. Subtractive hybridization was used to isolate the responsive genes to heterologous CBF1 in transgenic tomato plants and the CAT1 (CATALASE1) was characterized. Catalase activity increased, and hydrogen peroxide concentration decreased in transgenic tomato plants compared with the wild-type plants with or without water deficit stress. These results indicated that the heterologous Arabidopsis CBF1 can confer water deficit resistance in transgenic tomato plants.Many environmental stresses, such as heat, salinity, low temperature, and drought, and developmental processes, such as seed maturation, cause water deficit in plants (Ingram and Bartels, 1996). To understand water deficit stress at the molecular level, many genes have been isolated, such as rd (responsive to dehydration), erd (early responsive to dehydration), and Lea (late embryogenesis abundant; Shinozaki and Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, 2000). The accumulation of LEA protein occurs during seed maturation, desiccation, and increases in vegetative tissue when plants are exposed to water deficit (Ingram and Bartels, 1996). Overexpression of a barley (Hordeum vulgare) group 3 LEA protein gene, HVA1, enhances tolerance of water deficit and salt stress in transgenic rice (Oryza sativa; Xu et al., 1996). Arabidopsis RD29A (COR78) responds to water deficit and low-temperature stresses (Horvath et al., 1993; Yamaguchi-Shinozaki and Shinozaki, 1993). Study of the promoter RD29A has lead to the characterization of a 9-bp element, TACCGACAT, referred to as dehydration-responsive element (DRE), that is also found in the promoter regions of many water deficit and cold responsive genes, such as RD17, ERD10, KIN1, COR15a, and COR6.6 (Yamaguchi-Shinozaki and Shinozaki, 1994; Wang et al., 1995; Thomashow, 1999). The DRE element contains a 5-bp core sequence of CCGAC, also known as C repeat (CRT), that plays an important role in regulating gene expression in response to low temperature, water deficit, and high salinity (Baker et al., 1994; YamaguchiShin...

Male sterility plays an important role in F1 hybrid seed production. We identified a male-sterile rice (Oryza sativa) mutant with impaired pollen development and a single T-DNA insertion in the transcription factor gene bHLH142. Knockout mutants of bHLH142 exhibited retarded meiosis and defects in tapetal programmed cell death. RT-PCR and in situ hybridization analyses showed that bHLH142 is specifically expressed in the anther, in the tapetum, and in meiocytes during early meiosis. Three basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, UDT1 (bHLH164), TDR1 (bHLH5), and EAT1/DTD1 (bHLH141) are known to function in rice pollen development. bHLH142 acts downstream of UDT1 and GAMYB but upstream of TDR1 and EAT1 in pollen development. In vivo and in vitro assays demonstrated that bHLH142 and TDR1 proteins interact. Transient promoter assays demonstrated that regulation of the EAT1 promoter requires bHLH142 and TDR1. Consistent with these results, 3D protein structure modeling predicted that bHLH142 and TDR1 form a heterodimer to bind to the EAT1 promoter. EAT1 positively regulates the expression of AP37 and AP25, which induce tapetal programmed cell death. Thus, in this study, we identified bHLH142 as having a pivotal role in tapetal programmed cell death and pollen development.

The NAD(P)H dehydrogenase complex is encoded by 11 ndh genes in plant chloroplast (cp) genomes. However, ndh genes are truncated or deleted in some autotrophic Epidendroideae orchid cp genomes. To determine the evolutionary timing of the gene deletions and the genomic locations of the various ndh genes in orchids, the cp genomes of Vanilla planifolia, Paphiopedilum armeniacum, Paphiopedilum niveum, Cypripedium formosanum, Habenaria longidenticulata, Goodyera fumata and Masdevallia picturata were sequenced; these genomes represent Vanilloideae, Cypripedioideae, Orchidoideae and Epidendroideae subfamilies. Four orchid cp genome sequences were found to contain a complete set of ndh genes. In other genomes, ndh deletions did not correlate to known taxonomic or evolutionary relationships and deletions occurred independently after the orchid family split into different subfamilies. In orchids lacking cp encoded ndh genes, non cp localized ndh sequences were identified. In Erycina pusilla, at least 10 truncated ndh gene fragments were found transferred to the mitochondrial (mt) genome. The phenomenon of orchid ndh transfer to the mt genome existed in ndh-deleted orchids and also in ndh containing species.

BackgroundOncidium spp. produce commercially important orchid cut flowers. However, they are amenable to intergeneric and inter-specific crossing making phylogenetic identification very difficult. Molecular markers derived from the chloroplast genome can provide useful tools for phylogenetic resolution.ResultsThe complete chloroplast genome of the economically important Oncidium variety Onc. Gower Ramsey (Accession no. GQ324949) was determined using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Sanger based ABI sequencing. The length of the Oncidium chloroplast genome is 146,484 bp. Genome structure, gene order and orientation are similar to Phalaenopsis, but differ from typical Poaceae, other monocots for which there are several published chloroplast (cp) genome. The Onc. Gower Ramsey chloroplast-encoded NADH dehydrogenase (ndh) genes, except ndhE, lack apparent functions. Deletion and other types of mutations were also found in the ndh genes of 15 other economically important Oncidiinae varieties, except ndhE in some species. The positions of some species in the evolution and taxonomy of Oncidiinae are difficult to identify. To identify the relationships between the 15 Oncidiinae hybrids, eight regions of the Onc. Gower Ramsey chloroplast genome were amplified by PCR for phylogenetic analysis. A total of 7042 bp derived from the eight regions could identify the relationships at the species level, which were supported by high bootstrap values. One particular 1846 bp region, derived from two PCR products (trnHGUG -psbA and trnFGAA-ndhJ) was adequate for correct phylogenetic placement of 13 of the 15 varieties (with the exception of Degarmoara Flying High and Odontoglossum Violetta von Holm). Thus the chloroplast genome provides a useful molecular marker for species identifications.ConclusionIn this report, we used Phalaenopsis. aphrodite as a prototype for primer design to complete the Onc. Gower Ramsey genome sequence. Gene annotation showed that most of the ndh genes inOncidiinae, with the exception of ndhE, are non-functional. This phenomenon was observed in all of the Oncidiinae species tested. The genes and chloroplast DNA regions that would be the most useful for phylogenetic analysis were determined to be the trnHGUG-psbA and the trnFGAA-ndhJ regions. We conclude that complete chloroplast genome information is useful for plant phylogenetic and evolutionary studies in Oncidium with applications for breeding and variety identification.

Ralstonia solanacearum is the causal agent of bacterial wilt (BW), one of the most important bacterial diseases worldwide. We used cDNA microarray to survey the gene expression profile in transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) overexpressing Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) CBF1 (AtCBF1), which confers tolerance to BW. The disease-resistant phenotype is correlated with constitutive expression of the Related-to-ABI3/VP1 (RAV) transcription factor, ethylene-responsive factor (ERF) family genes, and several pathogenesis-related (PR) genes. Using a transient assay system, we show that tomato RAV2 (SlRAV2) can transactivate the reporter gene driven by the SlERF5 promoter. Virus-induced gene silencing of SlERF5 and SlRAV2 in AtCBF1 transgenic and BW-resistant cultivar Hawaii 7996 plants gave rise to plants with enhanced susceptibility to BW. Constitutive overexpression of SlRAV2 in transgenic tomato plants induced the expression of SlERF5 and PR5 genes and increased BW tolerance, while knockdown of expression of SlRAV2 inhibited SlERF5 and PR5 gene expression under pathogen infection and significantly decreased BW tolerance. In addition, transgenic tomato overexpressing SlERF5 also accumulated higher levels of PR5 transcripts and displayed better tolerance to pathogen than wild-type plants. From these results, we conclude that SlERFs may act as intermediate transcription factors between AtCBF1 and PR genes via SlRAV in tomato, which results in enhanced tolerance to BW.

Abiotic stresses such as cold, water deficit, and salt stresses severely reduce crop productivity. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is an important economic crop; however, not much is known about its stress responses. To gain insight into stress-responsive gene regulation in tomato plants, we identified transcription factors from a tomato cDNA microarray. An ABA-responsive element binding protein (AREB) was identified and named SlAREB. In tomato protoplasts, SlAREB transiently transactivated luciferase reporter gene expression driven by AtRD29A (responsive to dehydration) and SlLAP (leucine aminopeptidase) promoters with exogenous ABA application, which was suppressed by the kinase inhibitor staurosporine, indicating that an ABA-dependent post-translational modification is required for the transactivation ability of SlAREB protein. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that the recombinant DNA-binding domain of SlAREB protein is able to bind AtRD29A and SlLAP promoter regions. Constitutively expressed SlAREB increased tolerance to water deficit and high salinity stresses in both Arabidopsis and tomato plants, which maintained PSII and membrane integrities as well as water content in plant bodies. Overproduction of SlAREB in Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato plants regulated stress-related genes AtRD29A, AtCOR47, and SlCI7-like dehydrin under ABA and abiotic stress treatments. Taken together, these results show that SlAREB functions to regulate some stress-responsive genes and that its overproduction improves plant tolerance to water deficit and salt stress.

We have successfully transferred and expressed a reporter gene driven by an alpha-amylase promoter in a japonica type of rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. Tainung 62) using the Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer system. Immature rice embryos (10-12 days after anthesis) were infected with an Agrobacterium strain carrying a plasmid containing chimeric genes of beta-glucuronidase (uidA) and neomycin phosphotransferase (nptII). Co-incubation of potato suspension culture (PSC) with the Agrobacterium inoculum significantly improved the transformation efficiency of rice. The uidA and nptII genes, which are under the control of promoters of a rice alpha-amylase gene (alpha Amy8) and Agrobacterium nopaline synthase gene (nos), respectively, were both expressed in G418-resistant calli and transgenic plants. Integration of foreign genes into the genomes of transgenic plants was confirmed by Southern blot analysis. Histochemical localization of GUS activity in one transgenic plant (R0) revealed that the rice alpha-amylase promoter functions in all cell types of the mature leaves, stems, sheaths and roots, but not in the very young leaves. This transgenic plant grew more slowly and produced less seeds than the wild-type plant, but its R1 and R2 progenies grew normally and produced as much seeds as the wild-type plant. Inheritance of foreign genes to the progenies was also confirmed by Southern blot analysis. These data demonstrate successful gene transfer and sexual inheritance of the chimeric genes.

SummaryOrchids exhibit a range of unique flower shapes and are a valuable ornamental crop. MADS-box transcription factors are key regulatory components in flower initiation and development. Changing the flower shape and flowering time can increase the value of the orchid in the ornamental horticulture industry. In this study, 28 MADS-box genes were identified from the transcriptome database of the model orchid Erycina pusilla. The full-length genomic sequences of these MADS-box genes were obtained from BAC clones. Of these, 27 were MIKC-type EpMADS (two truncated forms) and one was a type I EpMADS. Eleven EpMADS genes contained introns longer than 10 kb. Phylogenetic analysis classified the 24 MIKC c genes into nine subfamilies. Three specific protein motifs, AG, FUL and SVP, were identified and used to classify three subfamilies. The expression profile of each EpMADS gene correlated with its putative function. The phylogenetic analysis was highly correlated with the protein domain identification and gene expression results. Spatial expression of EpMADS6, EpMADS12 and EpMADS15 was strongly detected in the inflorescence meristem, floral bud and seed via in situ hybridization. The subcellular localization of the 28 EpMADS proteins was also investigated. Although EpMADS27 lacks a complete MADS-box domain, EpMADS27-YFP was localized in the nucleus. This characterization of the orchid MADS-box family genes provides useful information for both orchid breeding and studies of flowering and evolution.