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.

• Ki-Won Lee(Grassland and Forages Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration)
• Jin-Yong Mun(Grassland and Forages Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration)
• Ki-Yong Kim(Grassland and Forages Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration)
• Hee Chung Ji(Grassland and Forages Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration)
• Hyung Soo Park(Grassland and Forages Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration)
• Gi Jun Choi(Grassland and Forages Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration)
• Sang-Hoon Lee(Grassland and Forages Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration) Corresponding Author