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Plant and Cell Physiology Advance Access published online on December 14, 2006
Plant and Cell Physiology, doi:10.1093/pcp/pcl057
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Characterization of Transgenic Arabidopsis Plants Overexpressing High Mobility Group B Proteins under High Salinity, Drought or Cold Stress

Kyung Jin Kwak, Joo Yeol Kim, Yeon Ok Kim and Hunseung Kang

Department of Plant Biotechnology, Agricultural Plant Stress Research Center and Biotechnology Research Institute, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, 500-757 Korea

Corresponding author: Hunseung Kang, Department of Plant Biotechnology, Agricultural Plant Stress Research Center and Biotechnology Research Institute, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, 300 Yongbong-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju, 500-757 Korea, (Tel): 82-62-530-2181, (Fax): 82-62-530-2047, (Email): hskang{at}chonnam.ac.kr


  Abstract

High mobility group B (HMGB) proteins found in the nuclei of higher eukaryotes play roles in various cellular processes such as replication, transcription and nucleosome assembly. The Arabidopsis thaliana genome contains eight genes encoding HMGB proteins, the functions of which remain largely unknown in the transcriptional regulation of plant stress responses. To better understand the functions of HMGB proteins in the responses of plants to environmental stimuli, we examined the effect of various abiotic stresses on germination and growth of transgenic Arabidopsis plants that overexpress a single isoform of HMGB. The expression of HMGBs 2, 3 and 4 was up regulated by cold stress, whereas the expression of HMGBs 2 and 3 was markedly down regulated by drought or salt stress. Under salt or drought stress, the transgenic Arabidopsis plants that overexpress HMGB2 displayed retarded germination and subsequent growth compared to wild-type plants. Overexpression of HMGB4 had no impact on seed germination and seedling growth of the plants under the stress conditions tested. Contrary to no significant stress-related phenotypes of HMGB5-overexpressing plants, loss-of-function mutants of HMGB5 displayed retarded germination and subsequent growth compared to wild-type plants under stress conditions. Although transcript levels of various stress-responsive genes were not modulated by the expression of HMGB2, expression of several germination-responsive genes was modulated by HMGB2 under salt stress. Taken together, these results provide a novel basis for understanding the biological functions of HMGB protein family members that differently affect germination and seedling growth of Arabidopsis plants under various stress conditions.

Keywords: abiotic stress - Arabidopsis - high mobility group protein - HMG-box - transgenic plant


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