耐冷性に関する形質転換植物の作製

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1. Purpose: Low temperature is one of the important environments which limit the agricultural production. If chilling-sensitive plants of tropical origin can be converted to be more chilling-resistant, the net food production in the world can be much improved. It has been demonstrated that chilling sensitivity of plants is highly correlated with the level of saturation of fatty acids of phosphatidylglycerol (PG), one of the chloroplastic membrane lipids. It is suggested that the level of saturation of PG is under the control of the enzyme, acyl-(acyl-carrier-protein): glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (ATase). The purpose of this research is to convert a chilling-sensitive plant into a chilling-resistant plant, by technique of gene introduction.2. Results: (1) cDNA for ATase from a chilling resistant plant, Arabidopsis, was introduced into tobacco by Ti plasmid binary vector method. Analyses by southern blot, northern blot and Western blot demonstrated that the introduced gene was incorporated into the genome, and expressed, and that the gene product was transported into the chloroplast and processed to become the mature protein. (2) The analysis of the lipids of the tobacco transgenic plant indicated that the level of saturation of fatty acids was changed in PG, but in no other lipids. (3) By comparing the transgenic plants with control plants, it appeared that the transgenic plants were more resistant to chilling. (4) When the cDNA for ATase from a chilling sensitive plant, squash, was introduced to tobacco, the level of saturation of PG and the chilling sensitivity were both increased.3. Conclusion: It is now possible that the saturation of membrane lipids and also chilling sensitivity of plant can be modified by gene introduction.