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Cloning and characterisation of a Primula heat shock protein gene, PfHSP17.1, which confers heat, salt and drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are the critical components of responses to various environmental stresses. However, few have been functionally characterised in Primula. In this study, we cloned a sHSP gene, PfHSP17.1, which is highly up-regulated in the leaves of Primula forrestii exposed to thermal stress (42 °C for 2 h). Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that PfHSP17.1 is a member of the plant cytosolic class I sHSPs. This gene was basally and ubiquitously expressed in different plant organs. The expression of PfHSP17.1 was also triggered remarkably by salt, drought and oxidative stress conditions but was only slightly induced by abscisic acid. Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana constitutively expressing PfHSP17.1 displayed increased thermotolerance and higher resistance to salt and drought compared with wild-type plants. These results highlight the important role that PfHSP17.1 plays in diverse physiological and biochemical processes related to adverse conditions.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

CaMV:

Cauliflower mosaic virus

EST:

Expressed sequence tag

MDA:

Malondialdehyde

ORF:

Open reading frame

PEG:

Polyethylene glycol

RACE:

Rapid-amplification of cDNA ends

sHSP:

Small heat shock protein

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

WT:

Wild type

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (No. 2012BAD01B07).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Ornamental Plants Germplasm Innovation and Molecular Breeding, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Lu Zhang, Yike Gao, Huitang Pan, Weijuan Hu & Qixiang Zhang

  2. National Engineering Research Centre for Floriculture School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Lu Zhang, Yike Gao, Huitang Pan, Weijuan Hu & Qixiang Zhang

Authors
  1. Lu Zhang
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  2. Yike Gao
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  3. Huitang Pan
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  4. Weijuan Hu
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  5. Qixiang Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qixiang Zhang.

Additional information

Communicated by J.-H. Liu.

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11738_2013_1354_Fig7_ESM.jpg

Supplementary Fig. S1 Semi-quantitative RT-PCR of expression of PfHSP17.1 in P. forrestii under ABA treatment. The semi-quantitative RT-PCR was performed with the following amplification conditions: 4 min at 94 °C; 30 cycles of 30s at 94 °C, 40s at 55 °C, and 1 min at 72 °C; and, lastly, 6 min at 72 °C. RT-PCR of temporal expression pattern of PfHSP17.1 mRNAs were extracted from leaves of P. forrestii treated with 100 μM ABA for different time (JPEG 33 kb)

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Zhang, L., Gao, Y., Pan, H. et al. Cloning and characterisation of a Primula heat shock protein gene, PfHSP17.1, which confers heat, salt and drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana . Acta Physiol Plant 35, 3191–3200 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-013-1354-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-013-1354-2

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