Expression and Function of a Modified AP2/ERF Transcription Factor from Brassica napus Enhances Cold Tolerance in Transgenic Arabidopsis

• DOI: 10.1007/s12033-012-9515-x
• Publication Date: 2012-02-19T15:20:54Z
• Authors: Ai-Sheng Xiong; Hai-Hua Jiang; Jing Zhuang; Ri-He Peng; Xiao-Fen Jin; Bo Zhu; Feng Wang; Jian Zhang; Quan-Hong Yao
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Cold-Shock Response; Brassica napus; Arabidopsis; Carbohydrates; Plants, Genetically Modified; Adaptation, Physiological; Cold Temperature; Electrolytes; 03 medical and health sciences; Transcription Factor AP-2; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Directed Molecular Evolution; Plant Proteins

One of the most rapid and effective defensive mechanisms plants have for protecting themselves, from a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses, is the regulation of plant signal transcription factors. AP2/ERF factors play an important role in plant development as well as in hormonal regulation and cold response. Directed evolution is a powerful tool to modify proteins, improving their properties, and for studying their structure-function relations. Here, the transgenic Arabidopsis plants over-expressed a mutant gene, BnaERF-B3-hy15-mu3, which encoded for a factor that exhibited more binding activity with the GCC box element than the wild-type gene BnaERF-B3-hy15 encode factor, and exhibited more freezing tolerance than transgenic plants containing the original BnaERF-B3-hy15 gene. Real-time PCR analyses also revealed that the expression levels of several stress-regulated genes were altered in the over-expressed BnaERF-B3-hy15-mu3 transgenic lines. The BnaERF-B3-hy15 responded to exogenous ABA. Using RT-PCR analysis, the expression of BnaERF-B3-hy15 at different stages and stress treatments were also analyzed.