• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.95-100
• /
• 2000

The cytosolic glutathione reductase (GR) gene of Brassica campestris L. was introduced into several Japonica cultivars of rice by Agrobacterium tumefaciens and a large number of transgenic plants were produced. Three-week old calli were co-cultivated with A. tumefaciens strain EHA101 carrying the plasmid pIGR1. The efficiency of transformation was differed from rice cultivars. A Japonica cultivar, 'Daeribbyeo' appeared the highest efficiency (42.5%) of transformation among the four cultivars tested. The addition of acetosyringone (50 $\mu$M) during co-cultivation was a key to successful transformation. Transgene fragments were identified by PCR amplification and further confirmed by Southern blot analysis. Mendelian inheritance of the transgenes was confirmed in T$_1$ progeny.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.250-261
• /
• 2010

The expression of vaccine antigens in transgenic plants has the potential to provide a convenient, stable, safe approach for oral vaccination alternative to traditional parenteral vaccines. Over the past two decades, many different vaccine antigens expressed via the plant nuclear genome have elicited appropriate immunoglobulin responses and have conferred protection upon oral delivery. Up to date, efforts to produce antigen proteins in plants have focused on potato, tobacco, tomato, banana, and seed (maize, rice, soybean, etc). The choice of promoters affects transgene transcription, resulting in changes not only in concentration, but also in the stage tissue and cell specificity of its expression. Inclusion of mucosal adjuvants during immunization with the vaccine antigen has been an important step towards the success of plant-derived vaccines. In animal and Phase I clinical trials several plant-derived vaccine antigens have been found to be safe and induce sufficiently high immune response. Future areas of research should further characterize the induction of the mucosal immune response and appropriate dosage for delivery system of animal and human vaccines. This article reviews the current status of development in the area of the use of plant for the development of oral vaccines.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.15 no.2 s.69
• /
• pp.176-181
• /
• 2005

To study calmodulin (CaM) gene expression and its regulation, rice CaM promoter (RCaM-2) was isolated and fused to $\beta-glucuronidase$ (GUS), reporter gene. X-Glue staining patterns revealed that GUS localization is high in meristemic tissues such as the stem apex, stolen tip, and vascular regions. GUS staining in the transverse sections of stem and petiole was restricted to the inside of the vascular system, and cortex and epidermis located outside of the vascular system usually did not show GUS staining even a plant that expressed strong activity. GUS activity was found to be tissue specific expressed and exhibited a dramatic transient increase in response to wounding. These results suggest that the 5'-flanking region of RCaM gene regulates wound-inducible expression.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.415-418
• /
• 2000

Productivity of a rice plant is greatly influenced by salt stress. One of the ways to achieve tolerance to salinity is to transfer genes encoding protective enzymes from other organisms, such as microorganisms. The bacterial gene, mtlD, which encodes mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase (Mtl-DH), was introduced to the cytosol of a rice plant by an imbibition technique to overproduce mannitol. The germination and survival rate of the imbibed rice seeds were markedly increased by transferring the mtlD gene when it was delivered in either a pBIN19 or pBmin binary vector. When a polymerase chain reaction was performed with the genomic DNAs of the imbibed rice leaves as a template and with mtlD-specific primers, several lines were shown to contain an exogenous mtlD DNA. However, a reverse transcription (RT)-PCR analysis revealed that not all of them showed an expression of this foreign gene. This paper demonstrates that the growth and germination of rice plants transiently transformed with the bacterial gene, mtlD, are enhanced and these enhancements may have resulted from the experssion of the mtlD gene. The imbibition method empolyed in this study fulfills the requirements for testing the function of such a putative gene in vivo prior to the production of a stable transgenic plant.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
• /
• 2017.06a
• /
• pp.116-116
• /
• 2017

Low-temperature is one of the environmental stress factors that affect plant growth and development and consequently limit crop productivity. The control of seed germination under low-temperature is organized by many genes which are called quantitative trait loci (QTLs). High germination rate for low-temperature is an important factor of growing rice. Previously, we identified a major QTL controlling low-temperature germinability in rice using 96 introgression lines (ILs) derived from a cross between Oryza rufipogon (Rufi) and the Korean japonica cultivar, 'Hwaseongbyeo (HS)'. A $BC_3F_7$ line (TR5) showed better low-temperature germinability than its recurrent parent. TR5 was crossed with HS to develop a segregating F2:3 populations for the target QTL. Six SSR markers polymorphic between HS and Rufi were used to screen and fine map the qLTG1. The qLTG1 on chromosome 1, which accounted for 55.5% of the total phenotypic variation, confirmed that Rufi allele enhanced the low-temperature germinability. Intervals between markers CRM16 and CRM15, four candidate genes were identified. The identified candidate genes, which are encoded by a protein of unknown function, showed their direct involvement on seed germination at low-temperature. To identify genes targeted by qLTG1, we investigated the expression profiles of these candidate genes and germination behavior of qLTG1 under different stress conditions and compared to HS, Rufi, and TR5 at $13{\pm}2^{\circ}C$ for 3 days after incubation. Furthermore, transgenic rice plants will also be developed to conduct a detailed investigation on low-temperature germinability. Hence, the QTL for low-temperature germinability would be useful in rice breeding programs especially in the development of lines possessing low-temperature germinability.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.105-109
• /
• 2009

We reported previously that overexpression of a salicylic acid (SA) methyltransferase1 gene from rice (OsBSMT1) or a SA glucosyltransferase1 gene from Arabidopsis thaliana (AtSAGT1) leads to increased susceptibility to Pseudomonas syringae due to reduced SA levels. To further examine their roles in the defense responses, we assayed the transcript levels of AtBSMT1 or AtSAGT1 in plants with altered levels of SA and/or other defense components. These data showed that AtSAGT1 expression is regulated partially by SA, or nonexpressor of pathogenesis related protein1, whereas AtBSMT1 expression was induced in SA-deficient mutant plants. In addition, we produced the transgenic Arabidopsis plants with RNAi-mediated inhibition of AtSAGT1 and isolated a null mutant of AtBSMT1, and then analyzed their phenotypes. A T-DNA insertion mutation in the AtBSMT1 resulted in reduced methyl salicylate (MeSA) levels upon P. syringae infection. However, accumulation of SA and glucosyl SA was similar in both the atbsmt1 and wild-type plants, indicating the presence of another SA methyltransferase or an alternative pathway for MeSA production. The AtSAGT1-RNAi line exhibited no altered phenotypes upon pathogen infection, compared to wild-type plants, suggesting that (an)other SA glucosyltransferase(s) in Arabidopsis plants may be important for the pathogenesis of P. syringae.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.339-343
• /
• 2000

When plants are exposed to subfreezing temperatures ice crystals are forming within extracelluar space in leaves. The growth of ice crystal is closely related to the degree of freezing injury. It was shown that an antifreeze protein binds to an ice nucleator through hydrogen bonds to prevent growth of ice crystal and also reduces freezing damage. The antifreeze proteins in plants are similar to PR proteins but only the PR proteins induced upon cold acclimation were shown to have dual functions in antifreezing as well as antifungal activities. Three of the genes encoded for CLP, GLP, and TLP were isolated from barley and Kentucky bluegrass based on amino acid sequence revealed after purification and low temperature-inducibility as shown in analysis of the protein. The deduced amino acid of the genes cloned showed a signal for secretion into extracellular space where the antifreezing activity sup-posed to work. The western analysis using the antisera raised against the antifreeze proteins showed a positive correlation between the amount of the protein and the level of freeze tolerance among different cultivars of barely. Besides it was revealed that TLP is responsible for a freeze tolerance induced by a treatment of trinexapac ethyl in Kentucky bluegrass. Analysis of an overwintering wild rice, Oryza rufipogon also showed that an acquisition of freeze tolerance relied on accumulation of the protein similar to CLP. The more direct evidence for the role of CLP in freeze tolerance was made with the analysis of the transgenic tobacco showing extracellular accumulation of CLP and enhanced freeze tolerance measured by amount of ion leakage and rate of photosynthetic electron transport upon freezing. These antifreeze proteins genes will be good candidates for transformation into crops such as lettuce and strawberry to develop into the new crops capable of freeze-storage and such as rose and grape to enhance a freeze tolerance for a safe survival during winter.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.809-817
• /
• 2009

The phenotypes associated with a gene function are often the best clue to its role in the plant. Transgenic plants ectopically expressing or suppressing a gene can provide useful information related to the gene function. In this study, we constructed three vectors - pFGL571, pFGL846 and pFGL847 - for the Agrobacterium-mediated ectopic expression of plant genes using pPZP211 and modified CaMV 35S, UBQ3 or UBQ10 promoters. The three vectors have several merits such as small size, high copy in bacteria, enough restriction enzyme sites in multi cloning sites and nucleotide sequence information. Analysis of transgenic plants containing GUS or sGFP reporter genes under the control of modified CaMV 35S, UBQ3 or UBQI0 promoter revealed that all of the three promoters showed high activities during most developmental stages after germination and in floral organs. Furthermore, we generated a RNAi module vector, pFGL727, to suppress plant gene expressions and confirmed that pFGL727 is useful for the suppression of a gene expression using rice transgenic plants. Taken together, our new vectors would be very useful for the ectopic expression or the suppression of plant genes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Grassland Science Conference
• /
• 2005.06a
• /
• pp.158-159
• /
• 2005

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1996.07a
• /
• pp.10-18
• /
• 1996

Recently, we have reported a rice MADS-box gene, OsMADS1, as a molecular factor triggering flower formation; this has been well studied in a heterologous system (Chung et al., 1994). In order to study whether the OsMADS1 homolog exists in other plant species, the OsMADS1 cDNA was used as a probe to screen a tobacco cDNA library, and a potential homolog, NtMADS3, was isolated. Sequence analysis revealed that the gene shares 56.1% identity in whole amino acids with OsMADS1. Like OsMADS1, the NtMADS3 gene starts to express at a very early stage of flower development, and the expression continues up to flower maturation. In the tobacco flower, the gene is expressed in whorl 2,3 and 4, corresponding to the petal, stamen, and carpel, respectively. Upon ectopic expression in the homologous system, NtMADS3 caused a trasition from inflorescence shoot meristem into floral meristem, reducing flowering time dramatically. These phenotypes strongly suggest the NtMADS3 gene is the OsMADS1 homolog of tobacco. Hybrids between the OsMADS1 and the NtMADS3 plants were also generated. The hybrids flowered even earlier than these two transgenic plants. The detailed studies are discussed here.