Evaluation of an abiotic stress inducible promoter in hairy roots of Lotus corniculatus

CHIESA M., CUEVAS J., SANNAZZARO A., RUIZ O., SÁNCHEZ D.

Villa Carlos Paz, Argentina

Congreso; XXXVII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2001

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

Environmental stresses are one of the most important factors that limit plant growth and crop productivity, Saline strcss reduces the water disponibility. causing hyperosmotic stress. When the water potential is instantaneously reduced the roots rapidly adjust the osmotic balance and reestablish the y gradient. allowing water absorption and resuming radical growth. However these changes are slow in the shoot so the result is a marked growth reduction. It is of technological interest to study the mechanisms which generate this osmotic stress sensitivity dif­ferences between the shoot and the roots, Our objective is to study the radical sensing and response to saline stress. We propose the use of transgenic roots (hairy roots) as a model, expressing a reporter gene (GUS) under the control of al1 stress inducible pro­moter of Arabidopsis thaliana. For this purpose the pro­moter was PCR amplified cloned and subcloned in a binary plas­mid. With the construction we transformed Agrobacterium  rhizogenes which allowed us to infect seedlings of Lotus corniculatus. Preliminary re­sults will be shown about the molecular and biochemical character­ization of independent clones of hairy roots which express the re­porter gene under abiotic stress conditions.