• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.12-19
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• 2003

Transgenic tobacco plants were selected by using the transformation of putrescine N-methyltransferase(PMT) gene, the key enzyme in diverting polyamine metabolism towards the biosynthesis of nicotine. PMT was fused in reverse orientation to the CaMV 35S promoter of the plant expression vector pBTEX(pPAB3) to produce tobacco plants of low nicotine content. To compare nicotine content, only pBTEX vector and PMT gene which was fused in forward orientation to the CaMV 35S promoter(pPAB2) were also transformed to the leaf tobacco plants(Nicotiana tabacum cv. NC82 and N. tabacum cv. Br2l). The presence of sense- and antisense-PMT gene, and pBTEX vector in the transgenic plant was confirmed by genomic PCR.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.329-335
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• 2008

Tocopherols are essential lipophilic antioxidant in human cells, while little is known about its function in plant tissues. To study the impact of composition and content of tocopherols on stress tolerance, tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) was transformed with a construct containing a cDNA insert encoding $\gamma$-tocopherol methyltransferase ($\gamma$-TMT/VTE4) from perilla under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter. The transgenic tobacco was confirmed by PCR and RT-PCR. The total content and composition of tocopherols in the transgenic lines were similar with wild type controls. However, chlorophyll-a and carotenoid content in the transgenic lines were increased by up to 45% (P<0.01) and 39% (P<0.02), respectively. Also, the over-expression of $\gamma$-TMT increased the salt stress tolerance in tobacco plants. These results demonstrate that over-expression of $\gamma$-TMT gene in tocopherol bio-synthetic pathway can increase salt stress tolerance and contents of chlorophyll-a and carotenoid in transgenic tobacco plants.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.39-44
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• 2000

To examine the chilling tolerance lipids, we compared the chilling susceptibility of photosystem II of wild type tobacco plants with that of transgenic tobacco plants, in which the sensitivity to chilling had been enhanced by genetic modification of fatty acid unsaturation of chloroplast membrane lipids. The transgenic tobacco plants were found to contain reduced levels of unsaturated membrane fatty acids by being tansformed with cDNA for glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase from squash. For the purpose of studying on the functional integrity of photosystem II during low-temperature photoinhibition, the photochemical efficiency was measured as the ration of the maximun fluorescence of chlorophyll (Fv/Fm) of photosystem II. In parallel with an investigation on the transgenic plants, susceptibility of chilling-resistant species, such as spinah and pea, and of chilling-sensitive ones, such as squash and sweet potato, to low-temperature photoinhibition was also compared in terms of room temperature-induced chlorophyll fluorescence from photosystem II. When leaf disks from the two genotypes of tobacco plants were exposed to light at 5$^{\circ}C$, the transgenic plants showed more rapid decline in photochemical activity of photosysytme II than wild-type plants. When they were pretreated with lincomycin, an inhibitor of chloroplast-encoded protein synthesis, the extent of photoinhibition was even more accelerated. More impottantly, they showed a comparable extent of photoinhibition in the presence of lincomycin, making a clear contrast to the discrepancy observed in the discrepancy observed in the absence of lincomycin. Restoration of Fv/Fm during recovery from low-temperature photoinhibition occurred more slowly in the transgenic tobacco plants than the wild-type. These findings are discussed in relation to fatty acid unsaturation of membrane phosphatidylglycerol. It appears that the ability of plants to rapidly regenerate the active photosystem II complex from might explain, in part, why chilling-resistant plants can toleratlow-temperature photoinhibition.

• 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 Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.213-218
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• 1999

Fructans are polyfructose molecules that function as nonstructural storage carbohydrates in several plants. In addition, it has been suggested that, due to their solubility, they can play an important role in helping plants survive periods of osmotic stress. In order to study the effect of levan synthesis on plant growth, the coding region of the levansucrase gene, which was isolated from Zymomonas mobilis, was introduced into tobacco plants using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. The presence of the levansucrase gene in transgenic plants was verified by genomic DNA gel blot analysis. RNA gel blot and immunoblot analyses showed an accumulation of the corresponding transcript and protein product of the bacterial levansucrase gene in transgenic plants. Furthermore, a thin layer chromatography analysis revealed that fructans were synthesized and deposited in transgenic tobacco plants. When $T_1$ seeds were germinated and grown under polyethylene glycol-mediated drought stress or cold stress, the transgenic seedlings displayed a substantially higher level of growth than that of untransformed plants. These results suggest that fructans may playa significant role in the tolerance of plants under osmotic stress.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.237-245
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• 1998

The transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi) plants containing Bacillus subtilis protoporphyrinogen oxidase gene with cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter have recently been generated by using Agrobacterium-mediated gene transformation. The nontransgenic and the transgenic tobacco plants were compared with respect to responses to diphenyl ether herbicide oxyfluorfen and under various environmental conditions. Both cellular leakage and lipid peroxidation caused by oxyfluorfen were found to be less in the transgenic than in the nontransgenic plants. Growth responses of the transgenic plants under various temperature, light, and water conditions were almost the same as those of the nontransgenic plants, although the transgenic plants exhibited slightly more retarded growth under low light or saturated water condition. These results revealed that the transgenic tobacco plants containing B. subtilis protoporphyrinogen oxidase gene under cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter were relatively resistant to oxyfluorfen and exhibited normal growth pattern. Possible mechanism of resistance to oxyfluorfen in the transgenic plants is also discussed.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.139-145
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• 2009

DNA methylation is known to play an important role in the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes. In this study, we isolated NtMET1 from Nicotiana tabacum cv. Havana (SR1) and obtain transgenic plants that reduced MET1 expression level with the double-strand RNA (dsRNA) MET1 gene. Transgenic tobacco plants showed dwarf and abnormal flower development when compared with the wild type. Using methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) analysis, the patterns of cytosine methylation in transformed plants and the wild type were compared. MseI/HpaII selection primers showed an interesting polymorphism, and 153 DNA bands of interest were detected. Among these, 30 selective fragments were sequenced and analyzed with a BLAST search by successful MSAP modifications. The homology search showed that the transposons and tandem repeated sequences were related to the phenotypes. These results suggested that the decreased degree of methylation by dsRNA strategy caused abnormal growth and development in N. tabacum.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.79-84
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• 2001

To assess resistance of transgenic tobacco plants which overexpress superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) in chloroplasts to water stress, changes in leaf water potential, turgor potential, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate were measured. Leaf water potential in all plants remained high up to day 4 after withholding water but thereafter decreased markedly. In spite of a remarkable decrease in leaf water potential, some of transgenic plants maintained higher turgor potential compared with control plant on day 12. In particular, the transgenic plant expressing MnSOD showed an outstanding maintenance in turgor pressure by osmotic adjustment throughout the experiment, resulting in high stomatal conductance and transpiration rate. However, among transgenic plants, osmotic potential was reduced more effectively in multiple transformants such as the double transformant expressing both MnSOD and APX, and the triple transformant expressing CuznSOD, MnSOD and APX than single transformants. Consequently, further research is needed to get general agreement on the tolerance of transgenic plants to water stress at different growth stages for each transgenic plant.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.109-114
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• 2001

A CAB cDNA vector(pKGCAB), encoding the light harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein in Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer), was constructed with the CaMV35S promoter of plant expression vector. The chimeric vector was transformed into tobacco(Nicotiana tabacum cv. NC 82) using Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA 4404 strain, and the transgenic tobacco plant CAB-TP2 was selected. Photosynthetic rates of the CAB-TP2 plant at before-flowering stage were increased about 20% under low irradiance conditions of quantum 100 and 500 $\mu$mol.m$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ , however, the rates were similar to those of NC 82 under quantum 1000 and 2000 $\mu$mol.m$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ conditions. The plants were germinating under low- or normal irradiance condition and the quantum yield of photosystem III were measured. The differences of the Fv/Em values between conditions were 0.07 and 0.01 in NC 82 and CAB-TP2, respectively. The mature leaves in the position 8-10 of the CAB-TP2 at before-flowering stage revealed l0% higher Fv/Fm values in range of 0.759 to 0.781 and 40% more chlorophyll contents of 70-93mg/$m\ell$ than those of normal NC 82. These data suggest the possibility that the increase in photosynthetic activity of leaves under low light intensity in the canopy of CAB-TP2 transgenic tobacco might lead to increase the quality of lower tobacco leaves.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.188-194
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• 1998

This experiment was conducted to introduce phosphinothricin acetyl -transferase(PAT) gene, resistant to basta and non-selective herbidide, into tobacco(Nicotiana tabacum cv.BY4). For shoot formation,tobacco leaf disks were placed on the MS medium supplemented with 2.0mg/L BA and 0.1mg/L NAA. In this medium condition, tobacco leaf disces were cocultivated with A. tumefaciens MP90 containing NPT IIand PAT resistant to kanamycin and Basta, respectively. Shoots were obtained in the medium containing antibiotics, and those were transferred to rooting medium supplemented with 0.1mg/L NAA and antibiotics. The plants obtaining roots were transplanted into soil. Phenotype of transgenic tobacco plant was mostly as normal plant. However, about 5% was abnormal plant, which did not set seeds. PCR analysis and southern blot were performed to determine transformation. As the results, it was confirmed that PAT gene was stably integrated into tobacco genome.When herbicide, basta, was sprayed to the plants confirmed by PCR, the transgenic plants showed normal growth, whereas normal plants died. Therefore, the result of this experiment show that tobacco transformation for the resistance to basta, non-selective herbicide, was successful because PAT gene was stably integrated into tobacco.