Showing papers by "Tony H. H. Chen published in 1998"
TL;DR: It appears that the presence of glycinebetaine in transformed plants enhances their ability to tolerate low-temperature stress during the imbibition and germination of seeds and the growth of seedlings.
Abstract: We transformed Arabidopsis thaliana with the codA gene from Arthrobacter globiformis. This gene encodes choline oxidase, the enzyme that converts choline to glycinebetaine. The presence of choline oxidase and glycinebetaine in seeds of transformed lines was confirmed by Western blotting and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry, respectively. The transformation with the codA gene significantly enhanced the tolerance of seeds to low temperatures, such as 0 °C, during imbibition. The transformation accelerated the germination and growth of seedlings at 10 and 15 °C. It appears that the presence of glycinebetaine in transformed plants enhances their ability to tolerate low-temperature stress during the imbibition and germination of seeds and the growth of seedlings.
103 citations
TL;DR: It is reported here that seeds of transgenic plants that expressed thecodA gene were also more tolerant to salt stress during germination than seeds of non-transformed wild-type plants, and exogenously applied glycinebetaine was effective in alleviating the harmful effects of salt stress at germination of seeds and growth of young seedlings.
Abstract: Arabidopsis thaliana was transformed previously with thecodA gene from the soil bacteriumArthrobacter globiformis. This gene encodes choline oxidase, the enzyme that converts choline to glycinebetaine. Transformation with thecodA gene significantly enhanced the tolerance of transgenic plants to low temperature and high-salt stress. We report here that seeds of transgenic plants that expressed thecodA gene were also more tolerant to salt stress during germination than seeds of non-transformed wild-type plants. Seedlings of transgenic plants grew more rapidly than those of wild-type plants under salt-stress conditions. Furthermore, exogenously applied glycinebetaine was effective in alleviating the harmful effects of salt stress during germination of seeds and growth of young seedlings, a result that suggests that it was glycinebetaine that had enhanced the tolerance of the transgenic plants. These observations indicate that synthesis of glycinebetaine in transgenic plantsin vivo, as a result of the expression of thecodA gene, might be veryuseful in improving the ability of crop plants to tolerate salt stress.
87 citations