Overexpression of human erythropoietin (EPO) affects plant morphologies: retarded vegetative growth in tobacco and male sterility in tobacco and Arabidopsis.
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.
Cheon
Ban Yoon
BY
School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Korea.
Kim
Hae Jin
HJ
Oh
Kyung Hee
KH
Bahn
Sung Chul
SC
Ahn
Ji Hoon
JH
Choi
Jang Won
JW
Ok
Sung Han
SH
Bae
Jung Myung
JM
Shin
Jeong Sheop
JS
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
D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D004921:Erythropoietin