biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 59:456-462, 2015 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-015-0524-z

A germin-like protein gene of rice increased superoxide dismutase activity in transformed tobacco

T. Yasmin^1,2, A. Mumtaz¹, T. Mahmood^1,3, M. Z. Hyder^1,2, S. M. S. Naqvi^1,*

¹ Department of Biochemistry, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

² Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

³ Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Germin and germin-like proteins (GLPs) are a broad and diverse family of developmentally regulated proteins widely distributed in plants. Oryza sativa L. harbours a large family of GLPs and serves as a good model for their study. In the present study, a germin-like protein gene (OsRGLP1) of rice origin was characterized by its heterologous expression in tobacco. The real-time PCR established almost a uniform expression of OsRGLP1 in leaves, stem, and roots of T₁ Nicotiana tabacum cv. Samsun. Although no morphological difference was apparent between T₀ transgenic and wild-type plants, leaves of mature transgenic plants showed necrotic lesions associated with an elevated content of H₂O₂, which was evidenced by in situ 3,3'-diaminobenzidine staining. A significantly higher activity of heat resistant superoxide dismutase (SOD) was observed in the transgenic plants as compared to the wild-type. The SOD activity in the transgenic plants was insensitive to potassium cyanide and sensitive to H₂O₂.

Keywords: hydrogen peroxide; Nicotiana tabacum; Oryza sativa; oxalate oxidase; superoxide dismutase

Subjects: germin-like proteins; superoxide dismutase; transgenic plants; oxalate oxidase; hydrogen peroxide; rice; tobacco

Received: April 28, 2014; Revised: February 24, 2015; Accepted: March 4, 2015; Published: September 1, 2015  Show citation