AUTHOR=Wang Bipeng , Ding HaiYan , Chen Qiqi , Ouyang Li , Li Shengchun , Zhang Jiang 

TITLE=Enhanced Tolerance to Methyl Viologen-Mediated Oxidative Stress via AtGR2 Expression From Chloroplast Genome

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01178

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2019.01178

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Owing to their sessile life habit, plants are continuously subjected to a broad range of environmental stresses. During periods of (a)biotic stresses, reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels can rise excessively, leading to oxidative stress. Glutathione reductase (GR) plays an important role in scavenging the ROS and maintenance of redox potential of the cell during oxidative stress. To enhance ROS scavenging capacity, and hence stress tolerance, the <italic>Arabidopsis thalianaGR2</italic> (<italic>AtGR2</italic>) gene was expressed from the tobacco plastid (chloroplast) genome, the main source of ROS production in plant photosynthetic tissues, in this study. Leaves of transplastomic tobacco plants had about seven times GR activity and 1.5 times total glutathione levels compared to wild type. These transplastomic tobacco plants showed no discernible phenotype and exhibited more tolerance to methyl viologen-induced oxidative stress than wild-type control plants. The results indicate that introducing <italic>AtGR2</italic> in chloroplasts is an efficient approach to increase stress tolerance. This study also provides evidence that increasing antioxidant enzyme <italic>via</italic> plastid genome engineering is an alternative to enhance plant’s tolerance to stressful conditions.</p>