title: Enhanced tolerance to heat stress in transgenic plants expressing the GASA4 gene.
abstract: We conducted a genetic yeast screen to identify Thermo-tolerance genes (TTOs) in maize kernel cDNA library. During the screening, we identified a maize clone (TTO6) that seemed to confer elevated heat tolerance in comparison to control cells. TTO6 cDNA (GenBank accession no. AY103785) encodes an 11-kDa protein which is 69% similarity to the Arabidopsis GASA4 gene. To further examine heat tolerance in Arabidopsis, we functionally characterized the GASA4 gene and found that heat induced GASA4 expression. Constitutive expression of GASA4 in Arabidopsis led to elevated heat tolerance in transgenic lines. Interestingly, endoplasmic reticulum chaperone expression analysis suggests that GASA4 influences BiP gene expression during heat stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biotechnology and Agricultural Plant Stress Research Center, Chonnam National University, 300 Yongbong-dong, Buk-gu, Kwangju 500-757, South Korea.
authors.forename: Chang-Beom
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: Young-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Woo
authors.forename: Dong Ju
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Myung-Chul
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Cheol Soo
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D018744:DNA, Plant; C036483:T-DNA; C077221:BIP protein, Arabidopsis; C093242:GASA protein, Arabidopsis