RNAi-mediated reduction of xanthine dehydrogenase results in increased biomass of Arabidopsis seedlings

Xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH), a classic enzyme involved in purine catabolism, can catalyze the formation of redox-signaling reactive oxygen and nitrogen species such as superoxide and nitric oxide. We generated transgenic plants of Arabidopsis in which XDH was knocked out by introduction of hairpin RNA-expression vector. Expression analysis by reverse transcription-PCR and in-gel staining of XDH activity revealed that transgenic lines efficiently suppressedXDH expression at the transcriptional level, demonstrating that RNA interference was successfully induced. XDH-suppressed transgenic lines exhibitedincreased biomass production during the growth of seedlings.