• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2011

The dehydration-responsive element binding proteins (DREB1)/C-repeat (CRT) binding factors (CBF) function as transcription factors and play an important role in agricultural biotechnology and molecular biology studies of drought and freezing stress tolerance. We generated transgenic Lolium perenne plants containing the PCR-cloned Arabidopsis DREB1A/CBF3 gene (AtDREB1A/CBF3) to study the function of this gene construct in drought and freezing tolerance in a species of turfgrass. Compared to the control, AtDREB1A/CBF3 transgenic L. perenne plants showed enhanced drought and freezing stress tolerance. The activities of the enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) were higher in transgenic plants than in the non-transgenic plant control. These results demonstrate that the expression of the AtDREB1A/CBF3 gene in transgenic L. perenne plants enhanced drought and freezing tolerance and that the increased stress tolerance was associated with the increased activities of antioxidant enzymes. These results are relevant to stress biology and biotechnology studies of turfgrass.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.101-106
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• 2012

Trifloxystrobin is a strobilurin fungicide, which possesses broad spectrum control against fungal plant diseases. We demonstrated that pre-treating red pepper plants with trifloxystrobin resulted in increased plant growth and leaf chlorophyll content compared with those in control plants. Relative water content of the leaves and the survival rate of intact plants indicated that plants acquired systemic tolerance to drought stress following trifloxystrobin pre-treatment. The recovery rate by rehydration in the drought treated plant was better in those pre-treated with trifloxystrobin than that in water treated plants. Induced drought tolerance activity by trifloxystrobin was sustained for 25 days after initial application. The trifloxystrobin treated red pepper plants also had induced systemic tolerance to other abiotic stresses, such as frost, cold, and high temperature stresses. These findings suggest that applying the chemical fungicide trifloxystrobin induced systemic tolerance to certain abiotic stresses in red pepper plants.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.53-58
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• 2002

Adverse environmental conditions such as drought, high salt and cold/freezing are major factors that reduces crop productivity worldwide. According to a survey, 50-80% of the maximum potential yield is lost by these "environmental or abiotic stresses", which is approximately ten times higher than the loss by biotic stresses. Thus, improving stress-tolerance of crop plants is an important way to improve agricultural productivity, In order to develop such stress-tolerant crop plants, we set out to identify key stress signaling components that can be used to develop commercially viable crop varieties with enhanced stress tolerance. Our primary focus so far has been on the identification of transcription factors that regulate stress responsive gene expression, especially those involved in ABA-mediated stress response. Be sessile, plants have the unique capability to adapt themselves to the abiotic stresses. This adaptive capability is largely dependent on the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA), whose level increases under various stress conditions, triggering adaptive response. Central to the response is ABA-regulated gene expression, which ultimately leads to physiological changes at the whole plant level. Thus, once identified, it would be possible to enhance stress tolerance of crop plants by manipulating the expression of the factors that mediate ABA-dependent stress response. Here, we present our work on the isolation and functional characterization of the transcription factors.n factors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.41-47
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• 2002

Adverse environmental conditions such as drought, high salt and cold/freezing are major factors that reduces crop productivity worldwide. According to a survey, $50-80\%$ of the maximum potential yield is lost by these 'environmental or abiotic stresses', which is approximately ten times higher than the loss by biotic stresses. Thus, Improving stress-tolerance of crop plants is an important way to improve agricultural productivity. In order to develop such stress-tolerant crop plants, we set out to identify key stress signaling components that can be used to develop commercially viable crop varieties with enhanced stress tolerance. Our primary focus so far has been on the identification of transcription factors that regulate stress responsive gene expression, especially those involved in ABA-mediated stress response. Be sessile, plants have the unique capability to adapt themselves to the abiotic stresses. This adaptive capability is largely dependent on the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA), whose level increases under various stress conditions, triggering adaptive response. Central to the response is ABA-regulated gene expression, which ultimately leads to physiological changes at the whole plant level. Thus, once identified, it would be possible to enhance stress tolerance of crop plants by manipulating the expression of the factors that mediate ABA-dependent stress response. Here, we present our work on the isolation and functional characterization of the transcription factors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology Conference
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• 2002.04b
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• pp.41-47
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• 2002

Adverse environmental conditions such as drought, high salt and cold/freezing are major factors that reduces crop productivity worldwide. According to a survey, 50-80% of the maximum potential yield is lost by these 'environmental or abiotic stresses', which is approximately ten times higher than the loss by biotic stresses. Thus, improving stress-tolerance of crop plants is an important way to improve agricultural productivity. In order to develop such stress-tolerant crop plants, we set out to identify key stress signaling components that can be used to develop commercially viable crop varieties with enhanced stress tolerance. Our primary focus so far has been on the identification of transcription factors that regulate stress responsive gene expression, especially those involved in ABA-mediated stress response. Be sessile, plants have the unique capability to adapt themselves to the abiotic stresses. This adaptive capability is largely dependent on the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA), whose level increases under various stress conditions, triggering adaptive response. Central to the response is ABA-regulated gene expression, which ultimately leads to physiological changes at the whole plant level. Thus, once identified, it would be possible to enhance stress tolerance of crop plants by manipulating the expression of the factors that mediate ABA-dependent stress response. Here, we present our work on the isolation and functional characterization of the transcription factors.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.315-321
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• 2003

Freezing and drought tolerances in plants are very important for survival in the desert. In an effort to reduce desertifcation in Gobi, a molecular breeding of Artemisia adamsii using the CLP (chitinase like protein, antifreeze protein) and Dhn5 (dehydrin5) genes from barley is performed by introducing them into Artemisia adamsii via Agrobacteria. We had found an optimal combinatorial concentration of hormones at 0.05mg/L of NAA and 0.5mg/L of BA for growth of callus in Artemisia adamsii. In addition, the higher rate of callus induction using hypocotyl as explant was observed comparing to explants of stem and leaf. There were some variations in the level of the proteins expressed among the transgenic lines such that the lines of CLP(CS1-5, 1-7,4-4) and Dhn5(DS2-2, 2-3) lines produce the protein to higher levels. The transgenic lines showing a higher level of Dhn5 exhibited better growth than nontransgenic callus in presence of 10 and 20％ PEG. In case of the CLP tansgenic lines, both CS1-5 and CS1-7 showed a higher level of freezing tolerance determined by ion leakage test.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2009

Two low temperature induced genes designated as SLTI66 and SLTI629 encoding KS-type dehydrin were heterologously expressed in E coli and A. thaliana. E coli cells expressing SLTI66 and SLTI629 protein grew better with iron stress compared to the control cells. Ectopic expression of SLTI629 conferred tolerance to iron stress in Arabidopsis but SLTI66 did not. Arabidopsis plants expressing SLTI66 showed enhanced tolerance to freezing and drought stress compared to those of wild type and SLTI629 lines. We propose that SLTI66 and SLTI629 play a different role as a protector against osmotic and metal stresses.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.77.2-78
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• 2003

An EREBP/AP2-type transcription factor (CaPFl) was isolated by DDRT-PCR following inoculation of soybean pustule pathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines Bra which induces HR on pepper leaves. Genomic Southern blot analysis revealed that the CaPFl gene is present as a single copy within the hot pepper genome. The deduced amino acid sequence of CaPFl has two potential nuclear localization signals, a possible acidic activation domain, and an EREBP/AP2 motif that could bind to a conserved cis- element present in promoter region of many stress-induced genes. The mRNA level of CaPFl was induced by both biotic and abiotic stresses. We observed higher-level transcripts in resistance-induced pepper tissues than diseased tissues. Expression of CaPFl is also induced upon various abiotic stresses including ethephon, MeJA, cold stress, drought stress and salt stress treatments. To study the role of CPFI in plant, transgenic Arabidopsis and tobacco plants which express higher level of pepper CaPFl were generated. Global gene expression analysis of transgenic Arabidopsis by cDNA microarray indicated that expression of CaPFl in transgenic plants affect the expression of quite a few GCC box and DRE/CRT box-containing genes. Furthermore, the transgenic Arabidopsis and tobacco plant, expressing CaPFl showed tolerance against freezing temperature and enhanced resistance to Pseudomonas syrnigae pv. tabaci. Taken together, these results indicated that CaPFl is a novel EREBP/AP2 transcription factor in hot pepper plant and it may has a significant role(s) in regulation of biotic and abiotic stresses in plant.

• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.338-343
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• 2008

Dehydrins (DHNs) compose a family of intrinsically unstructured proteins that have high water solubility and accumulate during late seed development at low temperature or in water-deficit conditions. They are believed to play a protective role in freezing and drought-tolerance in plants. A full-length cDNA encoding DHN (designated as ClDhn) was isolated from an oriental medicinal plant Codonopsis lanceolata, which has been used widely in Asia for its anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties. The full-length cDNA of ClDhn was 813 bp and contained a 477 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polypeptide of 159 amino acids. Deduced ClDhn protein had high similarities with other plant DHNs. RT-PCR analysis showed that different abiotic stresses such as salt, wounding, chilling and light, triggered a significant induction of ClDhn at different time points within 4-48 hrs post-treatment. This study revealed that ClDhn assisted C. lanceolata in becoming resistant to dehydration.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.246-253
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• 2012

Despite frequent freezing injury to tea trees due low temperature, drought, and strong wind during wintertime, no comprehensive measurements have been taken. We selected and examined 9 locations in Hwagae-myeon and 4 places in Agyang-myeon, Hadong-gun, Gyeonsanggnam-do where low temperature damage had occurred between December 2010 and February 2011. Our objective is to examine the effect of frost damage on the morphological symptom and harvest of a tea tree exposed to a constant low temperature environment during wintertime. The results of our analyses on meteorological environment, tea leaf chromaticity, water content and trypan blue are as follows: (1) the number of days with temperature of $-10^{\circ}C$ or less, which were subject to frost damage to a tea tree were 8 and 13.6% during the winterization period in 2011; (2) the accumulated time was 1,308 minutes, and the longest duration at $-10^{\circ}C$ was 588 minutes from 21:08 p.m. 15 January to 7:30 a.m. $16^{th}$ January. The rainfall was only 104 mm which was 306 mm less than the previous year; (3) the lightness L values in 2011 were higher than in 2012 due to dehydration and necrosis by blue discoloration and red discoloration at all areas in chromaticity measurement; (4) the water content in a tea leaf in 2011 was higher than in 2012 due to low rainfall and strong wind, and almost no cell death phenomenon was observed from normal tea leaves subject to no low temperature stress in a trypan blue analysis; and (5) partial coloration due to cell death, however, took place in the leaves damaged by blue discoloration subject to low temperature stress, and most coloration due to cell death took place in the leaves damaged by red discoloration.