Molecular Cloning and Characterization of a Ferritin Gene Upregulated by Cold Stress in Chorispora bungeana

Abstract

The ability of iron to accept and donate electrons makes it important for plant growth, but it can also damage plants when they are under environmental stress. Ferritin, a protein encoded by the gene Fer, catalyzes the oxidation of Fe(2+) and subsequent storage of Fe(3+) within the mineral core. Ferritin may reduce the adverse effects of iron on Chorispora bungeana Fisch. & C.A. May during the course of cold stress. C. bungeana is a rare alpine subnival plant species that is highly resistant to a freezing environment. We have isolated and characterized the ferritin cDNA (CbFer) from C. bungeana. It is 975 bp in length with an open reading frame of 260 amino acids, corresponding to a protein of predicted molecular mass of 29.17 kDa and an isoelectric point of 5.44. Amino acid analysis of the polypeptides indicated that CbFer codes for a ferritin subunit plus a chloroplast-targeting transit peptide. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis confirmed that CbFer was a tissue-specific gene since the expression could only be detected in leaves. The gene expression patterns were investigated in relation to cold stress (4 degrees C and -4 degrees C) and to various exogenous signals, including excessive iron, hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)), and nitrogen monoxidum (NO). The amount of CbFer mRNA increased in response to low temperatures and gene expression at -4 degrees C was both more distinct and quicker than that at 4 degrees C. Two exogenous signals, excessive iron and H(2)O(2), upregulated the expression of the CbFer gene, but NO had no effect. The CbFer gene may play an important role in response to cold stress, while the expression of the gene during stress may be influenced by major and minor factors such as iron and H(2)O(2), respectively.

Proteomic and metabolomic profiling of Valencia orange fruit after natural frost exposure

“…Notably, an isoform of this family disappeared immediately after the frost episode but reappeared with higher intensity after a week. This result contrasts with other observations that report no effect of cold stress in ferritin expression in pear (Xi et al ) and the upregulation in a cold tolerant alpine plant (Zhang et al ). Whether the disappearance really reflects lack of protein or its modification in such a way that it no longer migrates to the same spot is not clear at this time.…”

Chilling- and Freezing- Induced Alterations in Cytosine Methylation and Its Association with the Cold Tolerance of an Alpine Subnival Plant, Chorispora bungeana

“…Transcriptome profiling and molecular genetics have analyzed the stress regulatory network of C . bungeana , a subnival alpine plant with inherited cold tolerance [ 33 – 37 , 39 , 40 ], but little is known about the direct effects of low temperature on epigenetic regulation. Using a combination of the MS-AFLP technique and integrated statistical analyses, we found an interesting variation in DNA methylation of C .…”

Integrated regulation triggered by a cryophyte ω-3 desaturase gene confers multiple-stress tolerance in tobacco

“…The expression of CbFAD3 in C. bungeana was detected using CbACT (AY825362) as the housekeeping gene ( Di et al , 2009 ; Wu et al , 2009 ; Zhang et al , 2009 ). The amplification specificity of each primer pair (P9 and P10 for CbFAD3 , P11 and P12 for CbACT ; Supplementary Table S2 ) was checked by gel electrophoresis and dissolution curve analysis.…”

“…Being closely related to Arabidopsis ( Zhao et al , 2012 ), C. bungeana is good plant material for the study of abiotic stress. Previous studies have confirmed that certain physiological and molecular mechanisms, rather than the existence of special morphological characteristics, might contribute towards its high survival under severe environmental conditions ( Fu et al , 2006 ; Zhang et al , 2006 ; Shi et al , 2008 ; Di et al , 2009 ; Wu et al , 2009 ; Zhang et al , 2009 ; Zhao et al , 2012 ). Moreover, we found that the cold tolerance of C. bungeana suspension-cultured cells was associated with the rapid increase in C18:3 under low temperatures ( Shi et al , 2008 ), which was produced mainly by microsomal ω-3 FAD.…”