Application of proteomics and transgenesis in improving forage and bioenergy crops

摘要

With the prominent changes of global climate, development of improved forage and bioenergy crop is essential for the predicted environmental stress. In order to develop stress tolerant crop, we generated transgenic tall fescue plants expressing 2 -Cys Prx, OsHSP26 and CodA genes under the control of CaMV 35S promoter. Our result shows that transgenic plants are enhanced tolerance to several abiotic stresses such as methyl viologen, hydrogen peroxide, NaCl or heavy metals. These results suggest that chaperon activity, increased antioxidant and compatible solute level can increase tolerance against most common environmental stresses. Proteomics, the systematic analysis of {differentially) expressed proteins, is a tool for the identification of proteins involved in cellular processes which also provide useful target for genetic engineering. Miscanthus is regarded as one of the potential biofuel crops over the most other cellulosic crops due to greater leaf area with higher photosynthetic efficiency, least requirement for fertilizer, pesticides and irrigation and longer growing season. We performed a comprehensive proteomic analysis and successfully identified 148 proteins and constructed a reference map. This information will certainly provide the bases for future studies to elucidate leaf physiology during stress responses and developmental processes. Further study will lead to comparative proteomic analysis to find out possible target for engineering new plants.