• Journal of Life Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.83-89
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• 2003

To investigate the function of chloroplast small heat shock protein (HSP), transgenic tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum L, cv. SR-1) that constitutively overexpress the rice chloroplast small HSP (Oshsp26) were generated. Effects of constitutive expression of the Oshsp26 on thermotolerance were investigated with the chlorophyll fluorescence. After 5-min incubation of leaf discs at high temperatures, an increase in the Fo level, indication of separation of LHCII from PSII, was mitigated by constitutive expression of the chloroplast small HSP When tobacco plantlets grown in Petri dishes were incubated at $20^{\circ}C$/TEX> for 45 min and subsequently incubated at $20^{\circ}C$/TEX> leaf color of wild-type plant became gradually white and all plantlets were finally died. Under the conditions in which all the wild-type plants died, more than 80% of the transformants remained green and survived. It was also found that the levels of Oshsp26 protein accumulated in transgenic plants were correlated with the degree of thermotolerance. These results suggest that the chloroplast small HSP plays an important role in protecting photosynthetic machinery, as a results, increases thermotolerance of whole plant during heat stress.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.333-343
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• 2009

Here, we show that an endophytic bacterial strain, Enterobacter asburiae B1 exhibits the ability to elicit ISR in cucumber, tobacco and Arabidopsis thaliana. This indicates that strain B1 has a widespread ability to elicit ISR on various host plants. In this study, E. asburiae strain B1 did not show antifungal activity against tested major fungal pathogens, Colletotrichum orbiculare, Botrytis cinerea, Phytophthora capsici, Rhizoctonia solani, and Fusarium oxysporum. Moreover, the siderophore production by E. asburiae strain B1 was observed under in vitro condition. In greenhouse experiments, the root treatment of strain B1 significantly reduced disease severity of cucumber anthracnose caused by fungal pathogen C. orbiculare compared to nontreated control plants. By root treatment of strain B1 more than 50% disease control against anthracnose on cucumber was observed in all greenhouse experiments. Simultaneously, under the greenhouse condition, the soil drench of strain B1 and a chemical inducer benzothiadiazole (BTH) to tobacco plants induced GUS activity which is linked with activation of PR promoter gene. Furthermore, in Arabidopsis thaliana plants the soil drench of strain B1 induced the defense gene expression of PR1 and PDF1.2 related to salicylic acid and jasmonic acid/ethylene signaling pathways, respectively. In this study, for the main focus on root colonization by strain B1 associated with defense responses, bacterial cells of strain B1 was tagged with the gfp gene encoding the green fluorescent protein in order to determine the colonization pattern of strain B1 in cucumber. The gfp-tagged B1 cells were found on root surface and internal colonization in root, stem, and leaf. In addition to this, the scanning electron microscopy observation showed that E. asburiae strain B1 was able to colonized cucumber root surface.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.99-103
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• 1994

The herbicide bialaphos is a potent inhibitor of glutamine synthetase in higher plants. A bialaphos resistance (bar) gene encoding for an acetyltransferase was isolated from genomic DNA of Pseudomonas syringae pv tabaci. The bar gene was ligated to the binary vector pBI121. Pistils of tobacco plane were heated with the bar gene containing plasmid DNA at various times after pollination. When the treatment was applied at 30 and 40 h after pollination, a number of transgenic plants were obtained. Premary transformation (T$_{0}$ generation) and their progenies (T$_1$T$_2$) were resistant to both bialaphos and kanamycin at a dosage lathal to untransformed control plants. Stable integration of bar gene into chromosomal DNA was proven by Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA isolated from T$_1$progenies. These results show that the bialaphos resistant plane could be obtained by treatment to pistils with the exgenous bar gene through the fertilization cycle of tobacco.o.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 1999

Rapid accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and their toxic reaction products with lipids and proteins significantly contributes to the damage of crop plants under biotic and abiotic stresses. We have identified several stress activated alfalfa genes, including the gene of the alfalfa ferritin and a novel NADPH-dependent aldose/aldehyde reductase enzyme. Transgenic tobacco plants that synthesize alfalfa ferritin in vegetative tissues-either in its processed form in chloroplast or in the cytoplasmic non-processed form-retained photosynthetic function upon free radical toxicity generated by paraquat treatment and exhibited tolerance to necrotic damage caused by viral and fungal infections. We propose that by sequestering intracellular iron involved in generation of the very reactive hydroxyl radicals through a Fenton reaction, ferritin protects plant cells from oxidative damage. Our preliminary results with the other stress-inducable alfalfa gene (a NADPH-dependent aldo-keto reductase) indicate, that the encoded enzyme may play role in the stress response of the plant cells. These studies reveal new pathways in plants that can contribute to the increased stress resistance with a potential use in crop improvement.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology Conference
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• 2002.04b
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• pp.49-58
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• 2002

Oxidative stress derived from reactive oxygen species (ROS) is one of the major damaging factors in plants exposed to environmental stress. In order to develop the platform technology to solve the global food and environmental problems in the 21st century, we focus on the understanding of the antioxidative mechanism in plant cells, the development of oxidative stress-inducible antioxidant genes, and the development of transgenic plants with enhanced tolerance to stress. In this report, we describe our recent results on industrial transgenic plants by the gene manipulation of antioxidant enzymes. Transgenic tobacco plants expressing both superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) in chloroplasts were developed and were evaluated their protection effects against stresses, suggesting that simultaneous overexpression of both SOD and APX in chloroplasts has synergistic effects to overcome the oxidative stress under unfavorable environments. Transgenic tobacco plants expressing a human dehydroascorbate reductase gene in chloroplasts were showed the protection against the oxidative stress in plants. Transgenic cucumber plants expressing high level of SOD in fruits were successfully generated to use the functional cosmetic purpose as a plant bioreactor. In addition, we developed a strong oxidative stress-inducible peroxidase promoter, SWPA2 from sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas). We anticipate that SWPA2 promoter will be biotechnologically useful for the development of transgenic plants with enhanced tolerance to environmental stress and particularly transgenic cell lines engineered to produce key pharmaceutical proteins.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.69-77
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• 2002

Oxidative stress derived from reactive oxygen species (ROS) is one of the major damaging factors in plants exposed to environmental stress. In order to develop the platform technology to solve the global food and environmental problems in the 21st century, we focus on the understanding of the antioxidative mechanism in plant cells, the development of oxidative stress-inducible antioxidant genes, and the development of transgenic plants with enhanced tolerance to stress. In this report, we describe our recent results on industrial transgenic plants by the gene manipulation of antioxidant enzymes. Transgenic tobacco plants expressing both superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) in chloroplasts were developed and were evaluated their protection effects against stresses, suggesting that simultaneous overexpression of both SOD and APX in chloroplasts has synergistic effects to overcome the oxidative stress under unfavorable environments. Transgenic tobacco plants expressing a human dehydroascorbate reductase gene in chloroplasts were showed the protection against the oxidative stress in plants. Transgenic cucumber plants expressing high level of SOD in fruits were successfully generated to use the functional cosmetic purpose as a plant bioreactor. In addition, we developed a strong oxidative stress-inducible peroxidase promoter, SWPA2 from sweetpotato (lpomoea batatas). We anticipate that SWPA2 promoter will be biotechnologically useful for the development of transgenic plants with enhanced tolerance to environmental stress and particularly transgenic cell lines engineered to produce key pharmaceutical proteins.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2003

In an attempt to evaluate the current research status of genetically modified (GM) plants, the scientific research publications in Korea as well as in international SCI journals were screened. About 190 research articles related to the development of GM plants were searched from 10 different domestic journals in the last 12 years (Jan. 1990 to Sept. 2002), The researches in 65 articles were carried out with tobacco plant, 20 with rice, 19 with potatoes, and less then 9 articles from each other plant species, respectively, In total, 38 different plant species were being subjected for the development of GM plants. In particular, there was only one article for each major staple grains such as wheat, barley, soybean, and maize. In more than 47% of total published articles, scientists mainly focused on the basic research such as developing transformation system (46 articles), gene expression study in transgenic plants (34), and vector constructions (10). In addition, 28 articles which main authors are Korean scientists were searched from 11 different international SCI journals. Again, major plants for GM research were tobacco (10) and rice (7). More than 50% of published articles were focused on the basic research, gene expression study with transgenic plants (16). The publications on the research of disease-resistant plants were 7 articles, 3 for the development of stress-resistant and 2 for the herbicide-resistant plants, respectively. It is believed that the last 10 year's investment through government organizations has just strengthen the capacity for the next big stride on agricultural biotechnology in Korea.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2014

The objective of this study is to identify cold-tolerance genes in Brassica rapa. In order to acheive this goal, we analyzed a KBGP-24K oligo chip data [BrEMD (B. rapa EST and Microarray Database)] using B. rapa ssp. pekinensis inbred line 'Chiifu' under cold stress condition ($4^{\circ}C$). Among 23,929 unigenes of B. rapa, 417 genes (1.7%) were primarily identified as cold responsive genes that were expressed over 5-fold higher than those of wild type control, and then a gene which has unknown function and has full length sequence was selected. It was named BrCSR (B. rapa Cold Stress Resistance). BrCSR was transformed using expression vector pSL101 to confirm whether BrCSR can enhance cold tolerance in tobacco plants. $T_1$ transgenic tobacco plants expressing BrCSR were selected by PCR and Southern hybridization analyses, and the function of BrCSR was characterized by expression level analysis and phenotype observation under cold stress condition. The expression level of BrCSR in transgenic tobacco plants increased up to about two folds in quantitative real-time RT-PCR assay and this was very similar to Northern blot hybridization analysis. Analysis of phenotypic characteristics clearly elucidated that transgenic tobaccos expressing BrCSR were more cold tolerant than wild type control under $4^{\circ}C$ treatment. Based on these results, we conclude that the over-expression of BrCSR might be closely related to the enhancement of cold tolerance.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.223-228
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• 1985

Photosynthetic inhibition to temperature were conducted with ginseng(4 year old) and tobacco(var. Bulgaria). The plants were kept under various temperature conditions from 1$0^{\circ}C$ to 4$0^{\circ}C$ and 440$\mu$E/$m^2$/sec for 3 and 6hrs, and net $CO_2$ uptake were measured after 2hrs at $25^{\circ}C$. Photosynthetic optimal leaf temperature of ginseng was 21$^{\circ}C$ and tobacco was $25^{\circ}C$. Stomatal resistance and mesophyll resistance increased at high temperature. Especially, stomatal resistance seemed to have a significant role in determining the temperature responses of photosynthesis. In tobacco photosynthetic capacity was not changed by temperature treatment for 3hrs. However, 6hrs exposure reduced 8% of net photosynthesis at 4$0^{\circ}C$ and 12% at 1$0^{\circ}C$. Ginseng plants exposed for 6hrs at 4$0^{\circ}C$ lost photosynthetic capacity by 83%. Temperature responses of ginseng were very sensitive at above-optimum temperature resulting greater thermal inhibition other than photoinhibition.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.177-183
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• 1993

This study was conducted to obtain the transformed tobacco plants with S. cerevisiae Acid phosphatase gene(PH05) using Agrobacterium tumefaciens and th confirm plant transformation and gene expression. the results obtained were summarized as follows: APase activity of Saccharomyces cereviase NA 87-11A was remarkably showed up as deep red color when assayed by Tohe and Oshima(1974). PH05 fragment, Apase gene, was obtained from pVC727G and the graphically estimated size was about 1.5kb by agarose gel electrophoresis. The sequencing results of 5'end and 3'end of PH05 using dideoxy chain termination method were coinsided with the full length nucleotide already. pBKJ I vector was constructed by isolation of PH05 fragment from pVC727-1 and pBKSI-1 digesred with Sma I and Xba I. Isolated plasmid from transformed A. tumefaciens with constructed pBKJ I when it was electrophoresed with agarose gel. The dosc of tobacco leaf was cocultivated 재소 transformed Agronacterium tumefaciens. Transformed shoots were selected on kanamtcin-containing MS-n/B medium and they were regenerated. The transgenic tobacco plants were elucidated by isolation of genomic DNA and genomic southern hybridization using ${\alpha}-^{32}P$ labelled PH05 fragments. The PH05 in transformed tobacco plants was expressed in leaf, stem and root, and its APase activity was estimated as deep red color by Tohe method.