title: Overexpression of human erythropoietin (EPO) affects plant morphologies: retarded vegetative growth in tobacco and male sterility in tobacco and Arabidopsis.
abstract: Erythropoietin (EPO) is a glycoprotein used for curing human anemia by regulating the differentiation of erythroid progenitors and the production of red blood cells. To examine the expression of recombinant EPO in plants, pPEV-EP21, in which human epo cDNA under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter, was introduced into tobacco and Arabidopsis via Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. The RNA expression level of epo in the transgenic lines was initially estimated by Northern blot analysis. Two transgenic lines, which exhibited a high expression level of epo mRNA determined by Northern analysis, were chosen for Western blot analysis to examine the production of EPO proteins. Those two lines, EP21-12 and EP21-14, revealed detectable bands on the immunoblot. Interestingly, constitutive expression of the human epo gene affected the morphologies in transgenic plants such that vegetative growth of transgenic tobacco was retarded, and male sterility was induced in transgenic tobacco and Arabidopsis.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Ban Yoon
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Cheon
authors.forename: Hae Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Kyung Hee
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Sung Chul
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Bahn
authors.forename: Ji Hoon
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Jang Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Sung Han
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ok
authors.forename: Jung Myung
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Jeong Sheop
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Shin
mesh_terms: D016960:Agrobacterium tumefaciens / Q000235:genetics; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004921:Erythropoietin / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D014170:Transformation, Genetic
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D004921:Erythropoietin