• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.302-310
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• 2016

A study aimed at identifying putative drought responsive genes that confer tolerance to water stress deficit in tea plants was conducted in a 'rain-out shelter' using potted plants. Eighteen months old drought tolerant and susceptible tea cultivars were each separately exposed to water stress or control conditions of 18 or 34% soil moisture content, respectively, for three months. After the treatment period, leaves were harvested from each treatment for isolation of RNA and cDNA synthesis. The cDNA libraries were sequenced on Roche 454 high-throughput pyrosequencing platform to produce 232,853 reads. After quality control, the reads were assembled into 460 long transcripts (contigs). The annotated contigs showed similarity with proteins in the Arabidopsis thaliana proteome. Heat shock proteins (HSP70), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (cat), peroxidase (PoX), calmodulinelike protein (Cam7) and galactinol synthase (Gols4) droughtrelated genes were shown to be regulated differently in tea plants exposed to water stress. HSP70 and SOD were highly expressed in the drought tolerant cultivar relative to the susceptible cultivar under drought conditions. The genes and pathways identified suggest efficient regulation leading to active adaptation as a basal defense response against water stress deficit by tea. The knowledge generated can be further utilized to better understand molecular mechanisms underlying stress tolerance in tea.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.311-316
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• 2016

The efficacy of plant breeding has been enhanced by application of molecular markers in population screening and selection. Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is a major staple crop that is economically important with worldwide distribution. It is valued for its spicy taste and medicinal effect. The aim of this study was to discover single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), microsatellite markers information, and percentage sharing through orthologous analysis of pepper-specific pungency-related genes. Here, we report the results of transcriptome analysis and microsatellite markers for four pepper varieties that possess a pungency-related gene. Orthologous analyses was performed to identify species-specific pungency-related genes in pepper, Arabidopsis thaliana L., potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Advancements in next-generation sequencing technologies enabled us to quickly and cost-effectively assemble and characterize genes to select molecular markers in various organisms, including pepper. We identified a total of 9762, 7302, 8596, and 6886 SNPs for the four pepper cultivars Blackcluster, Mandarine, Saengryeg 211, and Saengryeg 213, respectively. We used 454 GS-FLX pyrosequencing to identify microsatellite markers and tri-nucleotide repeats (54.4%), the most common repeats, followed by di-, hexa-, tetra-, and penta-nucleotide repeats. A total of 5156 (15.9%) pepper-specific pungency-related genes were discovered as a result of orthologous analysis.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.208-219
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• 2017

Heterosis or hybrid vigor describes a phenomenon that superior phenotypes compared to the two parents are observed in the heterozygous $F_1$-hybrid plants. Identification and characterization of heterosis-related genes (HRGs) will facilitate hybrid breeding in crops. To identify HRGs in Brassica rapa, we analyzed transcriptome profiling using a Br300K microarray in non-heading Chinese cabbage at three developmental stages. A large number of genes were differentially expressed in $F_1$ hybrids and non-additive expression was prominent. Genes that are expressed specifically for $F_1$ hybrid at all three stages were Brassica-specific uncharacterized genes and several defense-related genes. Expression of several photosynthesis- and stress-related genes were also $F_1$ hybrid-specific. Thirteen NBS-LRR class genes showed high and specific expression in $F_1$ hybrid Shulu: some of them were characterized as defense genes in Arabidopsis, but most have not been. Further characterization of these defense-related genes in Brassica species and its application will be helpful for understanding the role of defense responses in heterosis. In addition, results obtained in this study will be valuable to develop molecular markers for heterosis and disease resistance in B. rapa.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.151-155
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• 2000

A cDNA (Oslls1) encoding Lls1-homologue of maize was isolated from cDNA library of rice (Oryza sativa cv. Ilpum). The 2,138 bp of full length Oslls1 clone contains an open reading frame of 1,623 nucleotides encoding 575 amino acid residues. The deduced amino acid sequence of Oslls1 has a high level of homology with chlorophyll a oxygenases of Arabidopsis thaliana (67%) and Marchantia polymorpha (65%). Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA indicates the existence of a small gene family for Oslls1 in the rice genome. The expression of Oslls1 mRNA was induced in leaves and germinating seeds. Treatment of $H_2O$$_2$significantly down-regulated Oslls1 expression. The expression of Oslls1 mRNA was consititutively down-regulated in the blm, a rice mutant exhibiting spontaneous necrotic lesions. These results suggest that this Oslls1 gene may be involved incell death mechanisms in the blm mutant of rice.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.49-52
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• 2010

A DNA extraction method using Chelex 100 is widely used for bacteria, Chlamydomonas, and animal cell lines, but only rarely for plant materials due to the need for additional time-consuming and tedious steps. We have modified the Chelex 100 protocol and successfully developed a rapid and simple method of DNA extraction for efficient PCR-based detection of transgenes from a variety of transgenic plant and algal species. Our protocol consists of homogenizing plant tissue with a pestle, boiling the homogenized tissue in a microfuge tube with 5% Chelex 100 for 5 min, and centrifuging the boiled mixture. The supernatant, which is used for PCR analysis, was able to successfully amplify transgenes in transgenic tobacco, tomato, potato, Arabidopsis, rice, strawberry, Spirodela polyrhiza, Chlamydomonas, and Porphyra tenera. The entire DNA extraction procedure requires <15 min and is therefore comparable to that used for bacteria, Chlamydomonas, and animal cell lines.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.157-165
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• 2009

Human erythropoietin (EPO) is a leading product in the biopharmaceutical market, but functional EPO has only been produced in mammalian cells, which limits its application and drives up the production costs. Using plants to produce human proteins may be an alternative way to reduce the cost. However, a recent report demonstrated that overexpression of the human EPO gene (EPO) in tobacco or Arabidopsis rendered males sterile and retarded vegetative growth, which raises concern whether EPO might interfere with hormone levels in transgenic plants. In the present study, we demonstrated that overexpressing EPO with additional 5'-His tag and 3' ER-retention peptides in tobacco did not cause any developmental defect compared to GUS plants. With our method, all 20 transgenic plants grew on selective medium and, further confirmed by PCR, were fertile. Most of them grew similarly compared to GUS plants. Only one transgenic plant (EPO2) was shorter in plant height but had twice the life span compared to other transgenic plants. When 11 randomly selected EPO plants, along with the abnormal plant EPO2, were subjected to RT-PCR analysis, all of them had detectable EPO transcripts. However, their protein levels varied considerably; seven of them had detectable EPO proteins analyzed by western blot. Our results indicate that overexpressing human EPO protein in plants does not have detrimental effects on growth and development. Our transformation systems allow us to further explore the possibility of glycoengineering tobacco plants for producing functional EPO and its derivatives.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.89-95
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• 2010

Dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) is a key enzyme of the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway which catalyses the NADPH-dependent reduction of 2R,3R-trans-dihydroflavonols to leucoanthocyanidins. In this study we describe cloning and expression of the genes encoding the flavonoid-biosynthetic enzyme DFR in Gypsophila paniculata L. Inspection of the 1279 bp long sequence revealed an open reading frame 1063 bp, including a 36 bp 5' leader region and 181 bp 3' untranslated region. Comparison of the coding region of this DFR cDNA sequence including the sequences of Arabidopsis thaliana, Citrus sinensis, Dianthus caryophyllus, Ipomoea batatas, Matthiola incana, Nierembergia sp, Petunia hybrida, Solanum tuberosum, Vitis vinifera reveals an identity higher than 69% at the nucleotide level. The function of this nucleotide sequences was verified by comparison with amino acid sequences of the amino-terminus and tryptic peptides from purified plant enzyme, by northern blotting with mRNA from wild type and mutant plants, by in vitro expression yielding and enzymatically active reductase, as indicated by the small leucopelargonidin peak. Genomic southern blot analysis showed the presence of only one gene for DFR in Gypsophila paniculata.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.135-143
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• 2011

In the Doritaenopsis hybrid, like most of the orchid species and hybrids, temperature is crucial for the vegetative-to-reproductive transition, and low temperature is required for bud differentiation. To understand the molecular mechanism of this process, an orchid GIGANTEA (GI) gene, DhGI1, was isolated and characterized by using the rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) PCR technique. Sequence analysis showed that the full-length cDNA is 4,022 bp with a major open reading frame of 3,483 bp, and the amino acid sequence showed high similarity to GI proteins in Zea mays, Oryza sativa, Arabidopsis thaliana and other plants. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR revealed that DhGI1 was expressed throughout development and could be detected in roots, stems, leaves, peduncles and flower buds. The expression level of DhGI1 was higher when the plants were flowering at low temperature (22/$18^{\circ}C$ day/night) than the other growth stages. Further analysis indicated that the accumulation of DhGI1 transcripts was significantly increased at low temperature, and concomitantly, initiation of the peduncle was observed. However, DhGI1 levels were low under high temperature (30/$25^{\circ}C$) conditions, and flower initiation was inhibited. These results indicate that the expression of DhGI1 is regulated by low temperature and that DhGI1 may play an important role in inflorescence initiation in this Doritaenopsis hybrid at low temperatures.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.209-222
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• 2006

The whole genome sequence was completed in arabidopsis and rice. Large amounts of EST data have been available from many other plants. Also, vast quantities of diverse biological data have been generated by various '-omics' technologies such as transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. Bioinformatics plays an essential role in extracting useful information from these tremendous amounts of biological data. In this review we introduced experimental methods to generate massive data, applications to plant science such as plant disease resistance and molecular breeding and bioinformatics tools and web sites available in plant biotechnology R&D. We concluded that new experimental methods and bioinfomation analysis techniques have made major contributions to the development of plant biotechnology and that bioinformatics has become a critical factor in plant biotechnology R&D.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.161-169
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• 2006

Plant metabolomics is a plant biology field for identifying all of the metabolites found in a certain plant cell, tissue, organ, or whole plant in a given time and conditions and for studying changes in metabolic profiling as time goes or conditions change. Metabolomics is one of the most recently developed omics for holistic approach to biology and is a kind of systems biology. For holistic approach, metabolomics frequently uses chemometrics or multivariate statistical analysis of metabolic profillings. In plant biology, metabolomics is useful to determine functions of genes often in combination with DHA microarrays by analyzing tagged mutants of the model plants Arabidopsis and rice. This review paper attempted to introduce basic concepts of metabolomics and practical uses of multivariate statistical analysis of metabolic profiling obtained by $^1$H HMR and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry.