title: The over-expression of calmodulin from Antarctic notothenioid fish increases cold tolerance in tobacco.
abstract: Genes involved in the calcium signalling pathway have a relationship with cold tolerance in many plants. The primary reaction to many different environmental stresses is an increase in the cytoplasmic Ca(2+) concentration. Such variations in the Ca(2+) concentration could change the activity of Ca(2+)-dependent protein functions, further regulating the expression of stress-related genes; therefore, the Ca(2+) signalling pathway is involved in the biological stress reaction. The expression of the calcium-modulated protein gene, calmodulin, in Antarctic notothenioid fish (Dissostichus mawsoni) accounts for 0.23% of all transcripts, which is a very high level of expression in this cold-water fish. To elucidate the function of calmodulin (CaM) from Antarctic notothenioid fishes, we introduced the calmodulin (CaM) gene into tobacco plants using a viral vector based on pea early browning virus (PEBV). RT-PCR and Western blot results confirmed that the CaM gene was over-expressed in tobacco. Under low-temperature stress, the CaM transgenic plants exhibited faster growth than wild-type plants. The physiological and biochemical effects of the high-level expression of CaM in tobacco were analysed, and the changes in the electrolyte leakage activity and malondialdehyde content showed that CaM over-expression in tobacco increased the cold tolerance of the plants. These results demonstrate that CaM can possibly be used to enhance the low-temperature tolerance of plants.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Science, Key Laboratory of Ecology and Environmental Science in Guangdong Higher Education, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biotechnology for Plant Development, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Changlian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Deng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Qiao
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Guanghui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Liangbiao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000235:genetics*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D002147:Calmodulin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D003080:Cold Temperature; D005399:Fishes / Q000235:genetics*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D002147:Calmodulin