• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.261-270
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• 2009

Oxidative stress is a major damaging factor for plants exposed to environmental stresses. In order to develop transgenic rice plants with enhanced tolerance to various environmental stresses, PsAPX1, the gene of ascorbate peroxidase isolated from Pisum sativum was expressed in chloroplast under the control of an oxidative stress inducible sweet potato peroxidase2 (SWPA2) promoter (referred to as PsAPX1 plants). PsAPX1 transgenic plants showed enhanced tolerance to various environmental stresses, such as 170 mM NaCl, UV-B, ozone, 20% PEG, and drought in compared with non-transgenic (NT) plants. These results suggest that chloroplast-targeted over-expression of PsAPX1 gene could be very useful strategy for developing transgenic rice plants with increased tolerance to environmental stresses.