SUMMARYIt is known that a senescing leaf loses water faster than a non-senescing leaf and that ABA has an important role in promoting leaf senescence. However, questions such as why water loss is faster, how water loss is regulated, and how ABA functions in leaf senescence are not well understood. Here we report on the identification and functional analysis of a leaf senescence associated gene called SAG113. The RNA blot and GUS reporter analyses all show that SAG113 is expressed in senescing leaves and is induced by ABA in Arabidopsis. The SAG113 expression levels are significantly reduced in aba2 and abi4 mutants. A GFP fusion protein analysis revealed that SAG113 protein is localized in the Golgi apparatus. SAG113 encodes a protein phosphatase that belongs to the PP2C family and is able to functionally complement a yeast PP2C-deficient mutant TM126 (ptc1D). Leaf senescence is delayed in the SAG113 knockout mutant compared with that in the wild type, stomatal movement in the senescing leaves of SAG113 knockouts is more sensitive to ABA than that of the wild type, and the rate of water loss in senescing leaves of SAG113 knockouts is significantly reduced. In contrast, inducible over-expression of SAG113 results in a lower sensitivity of stomatal movement to ABA treatment, more rapid water loss, and precocious leaf senescence. No other aspects of growth and development, including seed germination, were observed. These findings suggest that SAG113, a negative regulator of ABA signal transduction, is specifically involved in the control of water loss during leaf senescence.
In this research we established a particular vector-free and marker-free plant transformation system of maize to overcome the obstacles of biosafety limits. The BADH gene was introduced into maize by pollen-tube pathway, using the principle of minimum linear length of the transformation element, which was composed of only the BADH gene, expression regulatory sequence (35S CAMV promoter, NOS terminator), and T-DNA border sequence at both sides. Twenty-seven of 2076 transformed samples were positive in PCR amplification and the PCR positive rate of T 1 generation was 1.3%. Further Southern blotting results indicated that the BADH gene was integrated into maize genome. Transgenic lines of progeny were examined for tolerance to NaCl by induced salt stress with 250 mM NaCl Hoagland solution. After 15 days of treatment, 73.9-100% of the transgenic seedlings survived and grew well, whereas most wild-type seedlings wilted and showed loss of chlorophyll. Only 8.9% of the wild-type plants survived but gradually died after salt stress. The electrical conductivity of the transgenic line of progeny after salt stress was lower than wild type. The transgenic progeny had higher glycinebetaine and Chlorophyll content than wild type after salt stress.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.