To develop transgenic forage crops with enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress, we introduced an alfalfa Hsp23 gene expression vector construct through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Integration and expression of the transgene were confirmed by PCR, northern blot, and western blot analyses. Under normal growth conditions, there was no significant difference in the growth of the transgenic plants and the non-transgenic controls. However, when exposed to various stresses such as salt or arsenic, transgenic plants showed a significantly lower accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances than control plants. The reduced accumulation of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances indicates that the transgenic plants possessed a more efficient reactive oxygen species-scavenging system. We speculate that the high levels of MsHsp23 proteins in the transgenic plants protect leaves from oxidative damage through chaperon and antioxidant activities. These results suggest that MsHsp23 confers abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic forage crops and may be useful in developing stress tolerance in other crops.

Abiotic stress is the major limiting factor of forage crops growth and yields. The objective of this work was to study the stress tolerance and regeneration capability of transgenic forage crops carrying a MsHSP23 gene, encoding a alfalfa mitochondrial sHSP protein. The expression of the MsHSP23 gene was confirmed in bacteria, recombinant mHSP23 conferred tolerance to salinity and arsenic stress. Furthermore, mHSP23 was cloned in a plant expressing vector and transformed into forage crops such as alfalfa, tall fescue and bent grass. The transgenic plants exhibited enhanced tolerance to salinity and arsenic stress conditions. In comparison to wild type plants, transgenic plants were exhibited significantly lower electrolyte leakage. Moreover, the transgenic plants had superior germination rates when placed on medium containing arsenic. Taken together, these overexpression results imply that mHSP23 plays an important role in salinity and arsenic stress tolerance in transgenic forage crops. This approach could be useful to develop stress-tolerant plants including forage crops.

우용유전자 도입을 통한 신품종 톨페스큐를 개발할 목적으로 Agrobacterium을 이용한 효율적인 형질전환 체계를 확립하였다 톨페스큐 성숙종자 유래의 캘러스를 standard binary vector인 pIG121Hm을 가지는 Agrobacterium EHA101을 이용하여 감염시킨 후 공동배양하여 형질전환시켰다. Agrobacterium을 이용한 형질전환에 있어서 중요한 인자로 작용하는 몇 가지 요인에 대한 톨페스큐 캘러스의 형질전환 효율을 GUS 유전자의 발현정도로 조사하였다. Agrobacterium 감염시에 접종배지와 공동배양배지에 200uM의 acetosyringone(AS)을 첨가해 주었을 때 형질전환 효율이 증가 되었으며, 공동배양기간을 5일까지 증가시켰을 때 형질전환효율이 증가되었다. 또한 Agrobacterium 감염시에 200uM의 AS와 0.l%의 Tween20을 동시에 첨가해 주었을 때 가장 높은 형질전환 효율을 나타내었다. 50 mg/L.의 hygromycin이 첨가된 선발배지에서 살아남은 캘러스로부터 정상적인 식물체가 재분화 되었으며 이들 형질전환체를 GUS 염색과 Southern blot 분석을 실시하여 본 결과 발현백터의 T-DNA 영역이 형질전환 식물체의 genome에 성공적으로 도입되었음을 확인할 수 있었다. 본 연구를 통하여 확립된 효율적인 형질전환 시스템은 분자육종을 통한 신품종 톨페스큐의 개발에 유용하게 이용될 수 있을 것이다