• 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 Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.1311-1319
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• 2016

Alternaria brassicicola (Schwein.) invades Brassicaceae and causes black spot disease, significantly lowering productivity. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and their upstream kinases, including MAPK kinases (MAPKKs) and MAPKK kinases (MAPKKK), comprise one of the most important signaling pathways determining the pathogenicity of diverse plant pathogens. The AbSte7 gene in the genome of A. brassicicola was predicted to be a homolog of yeast Ste7, a MAPKK; therefore, the function was characterized by generating null mutant strains with a gene replacement method. AbSte7 replacement mutants (RMs) had a slower growth rate and altered colony morphology compared with the wild-type strain. Disruption of the AbSte7 gene resulted in defects in conidiation and melanin accumulation. AbSte7 was also involved in the resistance pathways in salt and oxidative stress, working to negatively regulate salt tolerance and positively regulate oxidative stress. Pathogenicity assays revealed that AbSte7 RMs could not infect intact cabbage leaves, but only formed very small lesions in wounded leaves, whereas typical lesions appeared on both intact and wounded leaves inoculated with the wild-type strain. As the first studied MAPKK in A. brassicicola, these data strongly suggest that the AbSte7 gene is an essential element for the growth, development, and pathogenicity of A. brassicicola.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.227-233
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• 2007

We characterized a full-length cDNA of CaCOP1 from pepper. Phylogenetic analysis based on the deduced amino acid sequence of CaCOP1 cDNA revealed high sequence similarity to the COP1 gene in Oryza sativa (84% identity). CaCOP1 shares high sequence identity with regulatory protein in Arabidopsis (84%), constitutively photomorphogenic 1 protein in Pisum sativum (81%) and COP1 homolog in Lycopersicon esculentum (79%). CaCOP1 gene exists single copy in the chili pepper genome. Expression of CaCOP1 was reduced in response to inoculation of non-host pathogens. The expression of this gene under abiotic and oxidative stresses was investigated, including 200 mM NaCl, 200 mM mannitol, cold ($4^{\circ}C$), 100 ${\mu}M$ abscisic acid (ABA), and 10 mM hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$). CaCOP1 was induced significantly 3 h after low temperature treatment but not by dehydration or high salinity. Moreover, CaCOP1 was not induced by plant hormone ABA. These observations suggest that CaCOP1 gene plays a role in abiotic stress and may be belong to ABA-independent regulation system.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.1159-1163
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• 2009

It has been postulated that endoplasmic (ER) stress is involved in the development of several diseases. However, the detailed molecular mechanisms have not been fully understood. Therefore, we characterized a genetic network of genes induced by ER stress using cDNA microarray and gene set expression coherence analysis (GSECA), and identified gene function as well as several transcription regulators associated with ER stress. We analyzed time-dependent gene expression profiles in thapsigargin-treated Sk-Hep1 using an oligonucleotide expression chip, and then selected functional gene sets with significantly high expression coherence which was processed into functional clusters according to the expression similarities. The functions related to sugar binding, lysosome, ribosomal protein, ER lumen, and ER to golgi transport increased, whereas the functions with mRNA processing, DNA replication, DNA repair, cell cycle, electron transport chain and helicase activity decreased. Furthermore, functional clusters were investigated for the enrichment of regulatory motifs using GSECA, and several transcriptional regulators associated with regulation of ER-induced gene expression were found.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.272-278
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• 2008

The carbon-ion beam (CIB) generated by the heavy-ion medical accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC) was targeted to 7-day-old rice. Physiological parameters such as growth, and gene expression profiles were examined immediately after CIB irradiation. Dose-dependent growth suppression was seen three days post-irradiation (PI), and all the irradiated plants died by 15 days PI. Microarray (Agilent rice 22K) analysis of the plants immediately after irradiation (iai) revealed effects on gene expression at 270 Gy; 353 genes were up-regulated and 87 down-regulated. Exactly the same set of genes was affected at 90 Gy. Among the highly induced genes were genes involved in information storage and processing, cellular processes and signaling, and metabolism. RT-PCR analysis confirmed the microarray data.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.355-356
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• 2000

Three 'stress probe' plasmids were constructed and characterized which utilize a green fluorescent protein (CFP) as a non-invasive reporter to elucidate Escherichia coli cellular stress responses in quiescent or 'resting' cells. Facile detection of cellular stress levels was achieved by fusion of three heat shock stress protein promoter elements, those of the heat shock transcription factor ${\sigma}^{32}$, pretense subunit ClpB, and chaperone DnaK, to the reporter gene $gfp_{uv}$. When perturbed by chemical or physical stress (such as heat shock, nutrient (amino acid) limitation, addition of IPTG, acetic acid, ethanol, phenol, antifoam, and salt (osmotic shock), the E. coli cells produced GFPuv which was easily detected from within the cells as emitted green fluorescence. A temporal and amplitudinal mapping of these responses was performed, demonstrating regions where quantitative delineation of cell stress was afforded.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.111-123
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• 2011

To investigate the effects of repeated immobilization-stress challenge on the the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the genomic transcriptome in the adrenal cortex of immobilization-stressed mouse was analyzed by using a cDNA microarray. Mice were subjected to immobilization stress for 2 h per day for 5 consecutive d. With a 4.0-fold cutoff of arbitrary criteria, the expression levels of 168 out of 41,174 genes were significantly modulated in the adrenal cortex by stress when comparing the control and experimental groups. These genes were related to apoptosis, cell cycle, immune response, inflammatory responses, and signal transduction, and thus may be used as potential targets for the development of therapeutics for chronic stress or depression. Six significant genes among these were selected for real time polymerase chain reaction analysis to confirm the change of their expression levels. The gene for phospho 1 was also further investigated because its expression showed the greatest fold-change.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.115-115
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• 2017

Zinc finger proteins constitute a large family which has been studied to have various functions in different organisms. Tandem CCCH zinc finger proteins (TZFs), members of the zinc finger protein family, are known to participate as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression in eukaryotes. Here, we showed that the OsZn15, a gene for tandem CCCH zinc finger protein, is induced by abiotic stress and its overexpression in transgenic rice plants (PGD1:OsZn15) gains higher drought tolerance. Gene expression analysis of promoter:GFP plants revealed that OsZn15 is specifically expressed in anther and embryo, but not in vegetative organs. In-field evaluation, grain yield was higher in the PGD1:OsZn15 than nontransgenic plants under drought conditions. Interestingly, OsZn15 is shown to not only localize at nucleus but also co-localize with both processing bodies (PB) and stress granules (SG), two messenger ribo-nucleoprotein complexes which are known to activate by forming cytoplasmic foci under stress conditions. In sum, these results suggest that OsZn15 increases drought stress tolerance of rice probably by participating in RNA turnover in PB and SG.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2018.10a
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• pp.179-179
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• 2018

Potato (Solanum tubersosum L.) is susceptible to various environmental stresses such as salt, high temperature, and drought. Especially, potato tuber growth is greatly affected by drought that causes not only yield reduction but also loss of tuber quality. Since unpredictable global weather changes cause more severe and frequent water limiting conditions, improvement of potato drought tolerance can minimize such adverse effects under drought and can impact on sustainable potato production. Genetic engineering can be utilized to improve potato drought tolerance, but such approaches using endogenous potato genes have rarely been applied. We were obtained AtbZIP28 gene transgenic potato plants. It is identified transcript levels at various stress conditions, polyethylene glycol (PEG), NaCl, (ABA). Also, For identification to regulate ER stress response genes in AtbZIP28 gene transgenic potato plant, we screened seven potato genes from RNA-seq analysis under TM treatment. Five and two genes were up- and down-regulated by TM, respectively. Their expression patterns were re-examined at stress agents known to elicit TM, DTT, DMSO and salt stress.