The chloroplast is a pivotal organelle in plant cells and eukaryotic algae to carry out photosynthesis, which provides the primary source of the world＇s food. The expression of foreign genes in chloroplasts offers se...The chloroplast is a pivotal organelle in plant cells and eukaryotic algae to carry out photosynthesis, which provides the primary source of the world＇s food. The expression of foreign genes in chloroplasts offers several advantages over their expression in the nucleus： high-level expression, transgene stacking in operons and a lack of epigenetic interference allowing stable transgene expression. In addition, transgenic chloroplasts are generally not transmitted through pollen grains because of the cytoplasmic localization. In the past two decades, great progress in chloroplast engineering has been made. In this paper, we review and highlight recent studies of chloroplast engineering, including chloroplast transformation procedures, controlled expression of plastid transgenes in plants, the expression of foreign genes for improvement of plant traits, the production of biopharmaceuticals, metabolic pathway engineering in plants, plastid transformation to study RNA editing, and marker gene excision system.展开更多
8-Sphingolipid desaturase is the key enzyme that catalyses desaturation at the C8 position of the long-chain base of sphingolipids in higher plants. There have been no previous studies on the genes encoding AS-sphingo...8-Sphingolipid desaturase is the key enzyme that catalyses desaturation at the C8 position of the long-chain base of sphingolipids in higher plants. There have been no previous studies on the genes encoding AS-sphingolipid desaturases in Brassica rapa. In this study, four genes encoding AS-sphingolipid desaturases from B. rapa were isolated and characterised. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that these genes could be divided into two groups： BrD8A, BrD8C and BrD8D in group I, and BrD8B in group II. The two groups of genes diverged before the separation of Arabidopsis and Brassica. Though the four genes shared a high sequence similarity, and their coding desaturases all located in endoplasmic reticulum, they exhibited distinct expression patterns. Heterologous expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae revealed that BrD8A/B/C/D were functionally diverse AS-sphingolipid desaturases that catalyse different ratios of the two products 8（Z）- and 8（E）-C18-phytosphingenine. The aluminium tolerance of transgenic yeasts expressing BrD8A/B/C/D was enhanced compared with that of control cells. Expression of BrD8A in Arabidopsis changed the ratio of 8（Z）：8（E）-C 18-phytosphingenine in transgenic plants. The information reported here provides new insights into the biochemical functional diversity and evolutionary relationship of AS-sphingolipid desaturase in plants and lays a foundation for further investigation of the mechanism of 8（Z）- and 8（E）-C18- phytosphingenine biosynthesis.展开更多
基金supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (863 Projects) (No.2007AA100505 and 2005AA206150)
文摘The chloroplast is a pivotal organelle in plant cells and eukaryotic algae to carry out photosynthesis, which provides the primary source of the world＇s food. The expression of foreign genes in chloroplasts offers several advantages over their expression in the nucleus： high-level expression, transgene stacking in operons and a lack of epigenetic interference allowing stable transgene expression. In addition, transgenic chloroplasts are generally not transmitted through pollen grains because of the cytoplasmic localization. In the past two decades, great progress in chloroplast engineering has been made. In this paper, we review and highlight recent studies of chloroplast engineering, including chloroplast transformation procedures, controlled expression of plastid transgenes in plants, the expression of foreign genes for improvement of plant traits, the production of biopharmaceuticals, metabolic pathway engineering in plants, plastid transformation to study RNA editing, and marker gene excision system.
基金supported by the National High-tech R&D Program(863 Program,No.2006AA10A113) of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Chinathe projects of Ministry of Agriculture of China for Transgenic Research (Nos.2009ZX08009-098B and 2008ZX08009-003)
文摘8-Sphingolipid desaturase is the key enzyme that catalyses desaturation at the C8 position of the long-chain base of sphingolipids in higher plants. There have been no previous studies on the genes encoding AS-sphingolipid desaturases in Brassica rapa. In this study, four genes encoding AS-sphingolipid desaturases from B. rapa were isolated and characterised. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that these genes could be divided into two groups： BrD8A, BrD8C and BrD8D in group I, and BrD8B in group II. The two groups of genes diverged before the separation of Arabidopsis and Brassica. Though the four genes shared a high sequence similarity, and their coding desaturases all located in endoplasmic reticulum, they exhibited distinct expression patterns. Heterologous expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae revealed that BrD8A/B/C/D were functionally diverse AS-sphingolipid desaturases that catalyse different ratios of the two products 8（Z）- and 8（E）-C18-phytosphingenine. The aluminium tolerance of transgenic yeasts expressing BrD8A/B/C/D was enhanced compared with that of control cells. Expression of BrD8A in Arabidopsis changed the ratio of 8（Z）：8（E）-C 18-phytosphingenine in transgenic plants. The information reported here provides new insights into the biochemical functional diversity and evolutionary relationship of AS-sphingolipid desaturase in plants and lays a foundation for further investigation of the mechanism of 8（Z）- and 8（E）-C18- phytosphingenine biosynthesis.
