Plant and Cell Physiology Advance Access published online on August 21, 2007
Plant and Cell Physiology, doi:10.1093/pcp/pcm104
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Plants utilize isoprene emission as a thermotolerance mechanism.
1Laboratory of Plant Gene Expression, Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji 611-0011, Japan
2National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba-City, Ibaraki, 305-8506, Japan
3VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, P.O. Box 1000 (Tietotie 2), 02044 VTT (Espoo), Finland
4Plant Science Center, RIKEN, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 230-0045, Japan
Corresponding author: Kazufumi Yazaki. Laboratory of Plant Gene Expression, Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji 611-0011, Japan. Tel: +81-774-38-3617, Fax: +81-774-38-3623, E-mail: yazaki{at}rish.kyoto-u.ac.jp
| Abstract |
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Isoprene is a volatile compound emitted from leaves of many plant species in a large quantity, which gives an impact in atmospheric chemistry due to the massive global emission rate (5 x 1014 Carbon g year-1) and its high reactivity with OH radical, resulting in the increase in the half-life of methane. The isoprene emission is strongly induced by the increase of the isoprene synthase activity in plastids at high temperature on daytime, which is regulated at its gene expression level in leaves, while the physiological meaning of isoprene emission for plants was not clearly demonstrated. In this study, we have functionally overexpressed the Populus alba isoprene synthase in Arabidopsis to observe isoprene emission from transgenic plants. A striking difference was observed when both transgenic and wild type plants were treated with heat at 60°C for 2.5 hr, i.e. transformants revealed clear heat tolerance compared to the wild type. High isoprene emission and a decrease in the leaf surface temperature were observed in transgenic plants under the heat stress treatment. Contrary, neither strong light nor drought treatments gave an apparent difference. These data suggest that the isoprene emission plays a crucial role of heat protection mechanism in plants.
Keywords: Arabidopsis - environmental stress - isoprene - physiological function - Populus alba - thermotolerance