cyp11A1 canola plants under short time heat stress conditions

Sakhno L.O., Slyvets M.S., Kuchuk N.V.

In order to investigate the high temperature tolerance of spring canola plants (Brassica napus L.) constitutively expressing cyp11A1 gene which encodes bovine cytochrome P450_SCC the growth features were analyzed under short time heat stress (42 ^ºС) in growth chamber. Earlier it was documented that results of the heat tolerance test positively correlated with improvement of high temperature resistance in field trial. Higher relative water content (by 13 %) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, lower electrolyte leakage (up 1.4-fold) and smaller increase in chlorophyll a and carotenoid contents in cyp11A1 canola leaves in comparison with wild-type plants under stress allowed to conclude cyp11A1 plants are more tolerant to high temperature than the control ones. We suppose that SOD activity increase which revealed in our transgenic canola in normal condition plays the defining role in the biochemical alterations in plant metabolism for the thermotolerance improvement. SOD activity increment could be caused by heterologous cytochrome P450_SCC activity which resulted in the superoxide radical formation. Cyp11A1 canola plants might be resistant to the other stress conditions of different origin.

Key words: Brassica napus, cyp11A1, cytochrome P450_SCC, photosynthetic pigments, heat stress, SOD

Tsitologiya i Genetika 2014, vol. 48, no. 5, pp. 11-17

• Institute of Cell Biology and Genetic Engineering NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv
• National Technical University of Ukraine »Kyiv Polytechnic Institute«

E-mail: sakhno icbge.org.ua

Sakhno L.O., Slyvets M.S., Kuchuk N.V. cyp11A1 canola plants under short time heat stress conditions, Tsitol Genet., 2014, vol. 48, no. 5, pp. 11-17.