title: Arabidopsis galactinol synthase AtGolS2 improves drought tolerance in the monocot model Brachypodium distachyon.
abstract: Brachypodium distachyon (purple false brome) is a herbaceous species belonging to the grass subfamily Pooideae, which also includes major crops like wheat, barley, oat and rye. The species has been established as experimental model organism for understanding and improving cereal crops and temperate grasses. The complete genome of Bd21, the community standard line of B. distachyon, has been sequenced and protocols for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation have been published. Further improvements to the experimental platform including better evaluation systems for transgenic plants are still needed. Here we describe the growth conditions for Bd21 plants yielding highly responsive immature embryos that can generate embryogenic calli for transformation. A prolonged 20-h photoperiod produced seeds with superior immature embryos. In addition, osmotic treatment of embryogenic calli enhanced the efficiency of transfection by particle bombardment. We generated transgenic plants expressing Arabidopsis thaliana galactinol synthase 2 (AtGolS2) in these experiments. AtGolS2-expressing transgenics displayed significantly improved drought tolerance, increasing with increased expression of AtGolS2. These results demonstrate that AtGolS2 can confer drought tolerance to monocots and confirm that Brachypodium is a useful model to further explore ways to understand and improve major monocot crop species.
authors: Biomass Research Platform Team, Biomass Engineering Program Division, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, 3-1-1 Koyadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan.
authors: Yasuyo
authors: Y
authors: Himuro
authors: RIKEN BioResource Center, 3-1-1 Koyadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan.
authors: Kanako
authors: K
authors: Ishiyama
authors: RIKEN BioResource Center, 3-1-1 Koyadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan.
authors: Fumie
authors: F
authors: Mori
authors: Frontier Science Research Center, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan.
authors: Takahiro
authors: T
authors: Gondo
authors: Biomass Research Platform Team, Biomass Engineering Program Division, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, 3-1-1 Koyadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan.
authors: Fuminori
authors: F
authors: Takahashi
authors: Biomass Research Platform Team, Biomass Engineering Program Division, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, 3-1-1 Koyadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan.
authors: Kazuo
authors: K
authors: Shinozaki
authors: Biomass Research Platform Team, Biomass Engineering Program Division, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, 3-1-1 Koyadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan; RIKEN BioResource Center, 3-1-1 Koyadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan.
authors: Masatomo
authors: M
authors: Kobayashi
authors: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan. Electronic address: rakashi@cc.miyazaki-u.ac.jp.
authors: Ryo
authors: R
authors: Akashi
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D058431:Brachypodium / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D055864:Droughts; D005700:Galactosyltransferases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D058439:Plant Somatic Embryogenesis Techniques; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D012639:Seeds / Q000235:genetics; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D014170:Transformation, Genetic
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D005700:Galactosyltransferases; C096645:inositol 1-alpha-galactosyltransferase
keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana galactinol synthase 2 (AtGolS2); Brachypodium distachyon; Drought tolerance; Particle bombardment; Transformation