ISHS Acta Horticulturae 579: II Balkan Symposium on Vegetables and Potatoes
CLONING OF SUPEROXIDE DISMUTASE (CU/ZN SOD) GENE IN PEPPERS FOR STRESS TOLERANCE |
| Authors: | A. Zambounis, I. Nianiou-Obeidant, A. Tsaftaris |
| Keywords: | Capsicum annuum L., paraquat, oxidative stress, superoxide dismutase, transformation. |
| Abstract:
Antioxidant defense systems are a prominent element in plant responses to environment stresses. Many conditions such water deficit, waterlogging, treatment with paraquat or infection by Phytophthora infestans may give rise to activated oxygen species in pepper. The enzyme of superoxide dismutase (SOD) constitutes the first line of cellular defense against oxidative stress by scavenging quickly the superoxide radical and converted it to hydrogen peroxide. In order to investigate the possibly protective functions of SOD in pepper chloroplasts, we have developed transgenic plants of the pepper hybrid PO1 and the red pepper type "Florinis" that express a chimeric gene that encodes chloroplast-localized Cu/Zn SOD from tomato. Hypocotyl explants co-cultivated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens LB4404 strain, harboring the p492Ti binary vector, which contained the introduced gene, under the control of CaMV 35S promoter and the nptII selection gene. The verification for the insertion of the transgenes was done using PCR technique. The transformation frequency of the regenerated plantlets for both the two genotypes was up to 2%. Transgenic SOD plants exhibited increased resistance to oxidative damage caused by exposure to concentrations of 10-5M and 10-4 MV, but at higher concentrations (10-3M), this protective effect disappeared. | |
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