title: Over-expression of a rice tau class glutathione s-transferase gene improves tolerance to salinity and oxidative stresses in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are multifunctional proteins encoded by large gene family in plants, which play important role in cellular detoxification of several endobiotic and xenobiotic compounds. Previously, we suggested the diverse roles of rice GST gene family members in plant development and various stress responses based on their differential expression. In this study, we report the functional characterization of a rice tau class GST gene, OsGSTU4. OsGSTU4 fusion protein was found to be localized in nucleus and cytoplasm. The over-expression of OsGSTU4 in E. coli resulted in better growth and higher GST activity under various stress conditions. Further, we raised over-expression transgenic Arabidopsis plants to reveal its in planta function. These transgenic lines showed reduced sensitivity towards plant hormones, auxin and abscisic acid. Various analyses revealed improved tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants towards salinity and oxidative stresses, which may be attributed to the lower accumulation of reactive oxygen species and enhanced GST activity. In addition, microarray analysis revealed up-regulation of several genes involved in stress responses and cellular detoxification processes in the transgenic plants as compared to wild-type. These results suggest that OsGSTU4 can be used as a good candidate for the generation of stress-tolerant crop plants.
authors.affiliation: Functional and Applied Genomics Laboratory, National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Raghvendra
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Functional and Applied Genomics Laboratory, National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Annapurna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sahoo
authors.affiliation: Functional and Applied Genomics Laboratory, National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Ragunathan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Devendran
authors.affiliation: Functional and Applied Genomics Laboratory, National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Mukesh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jain
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D005982:Glutathione Transferase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012275:Oryza / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D054712:Salinity
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D005982:Glutathione Transferase