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ARS Home » Plains Area » Manhattan, Kansas » Center for Grain and Animal Health Research » Hard Winter Wheat Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #221476
Title: Heterologous expression of a plastid EF-Tu reduces protein thermal aggregation and enhances CO2 fixation in wheat following heat stress

Author
item FU, JIANMING - KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
item MOMCILOVIC, IVANA - KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
item CLEMENTE, THOMAS - UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
item NERSESIAN, NATALYA - UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
item TRICK, HAROLD - KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
item Ristic, Zoran

Submitted to: Plant Molecular Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/23/2008
Publication Date: 7/1/2008
Citation: Fu, J., Momcilovic, I., Clemente, T., Nersesian, N., Trick, H., Ristic, Z. 2008. Heterologous expression of a plastid EF-Tu reduces protein thermal aggregation and enhances CO2 fixation in wheat following heat stress. Plant Molecular Biology. 68:277-288.

Interpretive Summary: Heat stress is a major constraint to wheat production and negatively impacts grain quality, causing tremendous economic losses, and may become a more troublesome factor due to global warming. At the cellular level, heat stress causes aggregation of proteins and injury to membranes leading to reduction in photosynthesis. Here we report on the development of transgenic wheat, expressing a maize gene for a chloroplast protein called EF-Tu, that displays reduced thermal aggregation of leaf proteins, reduced heat injury to photosynthetic membranes, and enhanced rate of photosynthesis after exposure to heat stress. The results suggest that heat tolerance of wheat, and possibly other crop plants, can be improved by modulating expression of chloroplast EF-Tu and/or by selection of plants with increased natural levels of this protein.

Technical Abstract: Heat stress is a major constraint to wheat production and negatively impacts grain quality, causing tremendous economic losses, and may become a more troublesome factor due to global warming. At the cellular level, heat stress causes denaturation and aggregation of proteins and injury to membranes leading to alterations in metabolic fluxes. Protein aggregation is irreversible, and protection of proteins from thermal aggregation is a strategy a cell uses to tolerate heat stress. Here we report on the development of transgenic wheat events, expressing a maize gene coding for plastidal protein synthesis elongation factor, EF-Tu, that display reduced thermal aggregation of leaf proteins, reduced heat injury to photosynthetic membranes (thylakoids), and enhanced rate of CO2 fixation after exposure to heat stress. This is the first demonstration of the introduction of a plastidal EF-Tu in plants that leads to protection against heat injury and enhanced photosynthesis after heat stress. The results strongly suggest that heat tolerance of wheat, and possibly other crop plants, can be improved by modulating expression of plastidal EF-Tu and/or by selection of genotypes with increased endogenous levels of this protein.