Corrigendum: Enhancing Heat Tolerance of the Little Dogwood Cornus canadensis L. f. with Introduction of a Superoxide Reductase Gene from the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus.

[This corrects the article on p. 26 in vol. 7, PMID: 26858741.].

Enhancing Heat Tolerance of the Little Dogwood Cornus canadensis L. f. with Introduction of a Superoxide Reductase Gene from the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus.

Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) can be accelerated under various biotic and abiotic stresses causing lipid peroxidation, protein degradation, enzyme inactivation, and DNA damage. Superoxide reductase (SOR) is a novel antioxidant enzyme from Pyrococcus furiosus and is employed by this anaerobic hyperthermophilic archaeon for efficient detoxification of ROS. In this study, SOR was introduced into a flowering plant Cornus canadensis to enhance its heat tolerance and reduce heat induced damage. A fusion construct of the SOR gene and Green Fluorescent Protein gene (GFP) was introduced into C. canadensis using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Heat tolerance of the GFP-SOR expressing transgenic plants was investigated by observing morphological symptoms of heat injury and by examining changes in photosynthesis, malondialdehyde (MDA), and proline levels in the plants. Our results indicate that the expression of the P. furiosus SOR gene in the transgenic plants alleviated lipid peroxidation of cell membranes and photoinhibition of PS II, and decreased the accumulation of proline at 40°C. After a series of exposures to increasing temperatures, the SOR transgenic plants remained healthy and green whereas most of the non-transgenic plants dried up and were unable to recover. While it had previously been reported that expression of SOR in Arabidopsis enhanced heat tolerance, this is the first report of the successful demonstration of improved heat tolerance in a non-model plant resulting from the introduction of P. furiosus SOR. The study demonstrates the potential of SOR for crop improvement and that inherent limitations of plant heat tolerance can be ameliorated with P. furiosus SOR.

A novel gateway-compatible binary vector series (PC-GW) for flexible cloning of multiple genes for genetic transformation of plants.

The rapidly advancing field of plant synthetic biology requires transforming plants with multiple genes. This has sparked a growing interest in flexible plant transformation vectors, which can be used for multi-gene transformations. We have developed a novel binary vector series, named the PC-GW series (GenBank: KP826769-KP826773), for Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation. The PC-GW vectors use the pCAMBIA vector backbone, and contain NPTII, hpt, bar, mCherry or egfp genes as selectable markers for plant transformation. In a modified multiple cloning site (MCS) of the T-DNA region, we have placed the attR1, attR2 and ccdB sequences for rapid cloning of one to four genes by Gateway™-assisted recombination. In addition, we have introduced four meganuclease sites, and other restriction sites for multi-gene vector construction. Finally, we have placed a CaMV 35S promoter and a 35S terminator on the 5' and 3' ends of the MCS. The CaMV 35S promoter is flanked by PstI restriction sites that can be used to replace it with another promoter sequence if needed. The PC-GW vectors provide choices for selectable markers, cloning methods, and can accommodate up to eight gene constructs in a single T-DNA, thereby significantly reducing the number of transformations or crosses needed to generate multi-transgene expressing plants.

Characterization of recombinant glutathione reductase from the psychrophilic Antarctic bacterium Colwellia psychrerythraea.

Glutathione reductases catalyze the reduction of oxidized glutathione (glutathione disulfide, GSSG) using NADPH as the substrate to produce reduced glutathione (GSH), which is an important antioxidant molecule that helps maintain the proper reducing environment of the cell. A recombinant form of glutathione reductase from Colwellia psychrerythraea, a marine psychrophilic bacterium, has been biochemically characterized to determine its molecular and enzymatic properties. C. psychrerythraea glutathione reductase was shown to be a homodimer with a molecular weight of 48.7 kDa using SDS-PAGE, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and gel filtration. The C. psychrerythraea glutathione reductase sequence shows significant homology to that of Escherichia coli glutathione reductase (66 % identity), and it possesses the FAD and NADPH binding motifs, as well as absorption spectrum features which are characteristic of flavoenzymes such as glutathione reductase. The psychrophilic C. psychrerythraea glutathione reductase exhibits higher k cat and k cat/K m at lower temperatures (4 °C) compared to mesophilic Baker's yeast glutathione reductase. However, C. psychrerythraea glutathione reductase was able to complement an E. coli glutathione reductase deletion strain in oxidative stress growth assays, demonstrating the functionality of C. psychrerythraea glutathione reductase over a broad temperature range, which suggests its potential utility as an antioxidant enzyme in heterologous systems.

Expression of Pyrococcus furiosus superoxide reductase in Arabidopsis enhances heat tolerance.

Plants produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) in response to environmental stresses sending signaling cues, which, if uncontrolled, result in cell death. Like other aerobic organisms, plants have ROS-scavenging enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), which removes superoxide anion radical (O(2)(-)) and prevents the production and buildup of toxic free radicals. However, increasing the expression of cytosolic SODs is complex, and increasing their production in vivo has proven to be challenging. To avoid problems with endogenous regulation of gene expression, we expressed a gene from the archaeal hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus that reduces O(2)(-). P. furiosus uses superoxide reductase (SOR) rather than SOD to remove superoxide. SOR is a thermostable enzyme that reduces O(2)(-) in a one-electron reduction without producing oxygen. We show that P. furiosus SOR can be produced as a functional enzyme in planta and that plants producing SOR have enhanced tolerance to heat, light, and chemically induced ROS. Stress tolerance in the SOR-producing plants correlates positively with a delayed increase in ROS-sensitive transcripts and a decrease in ascorbate peroxidase activity. The SOR plants provide a good model system to study the impact of cytosolic ROS on downstream signaling in plant growth and development. Furthermore, this work demonstrates that this synthetic approach for reducing cytosolic ROS holds promise as a means for improving stress tolerance in crop plants.

Production of a thermostable archaeal superoxide reductase in plant cells.

Pyrococcus furiosus superoxide reductase (SOR) is a thermostable archaeal enzyme that reduces superoxide without producing oxygen. When produced as a fusion protein with the green fluorescent protein in plant cells, P. furiosus SOR is located in the cytosol and nucleus. The recombinant SOR enzyme retains its function and heat stability when assayed in vitro. Importantly, expressing SOR in plant cells enhances their survival at high temperature indicating that it functions in vivo. The archaeal SOR provides a novel mechanism to reduce superoxide and demonstrates the potential for using archaeal genes to alter eukaryotic metabolism.

In vitro reconstitution of an NADPH-dependent superoxide reduction pathway from Pyrococcus furiosus.

A scheme for the detoxification of superoxide in Pyrococcus furiosus has been previously proposed in which superoxide reductase (SOR) reduces (rather than dismutates) superoxide to hydrogen peroxide by using electrons from reduced rubredoxin (Rd). Rd is reduced with electrons from NAD(P)H by the enzyme NAD(P)H:rubredoxin oxidoreductase (NROR). The goal of the present work was to reconstitute this pathway in vitro using recombinant enzymes. While recombinant forms of SOR and Rd are available, the gene encoding P. furiosus NROR (PF1197) was found to be exceedingly toxic to Escherichia coli, and an active recombinant form (rNROR) was obtained via a fusion protein expression system, which produced an inactive form of NROR until cleavage. This allowed the complete pathway from NAD(P)H to the reduction of SOR via NROR and Rd to be reconstituted in vitro using recombinant proteins. rNROR is a 39.9-kDa protein whose sequence contains both flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)- and NAD(P)H-binding motifs, and it shares significant similarity with known and putative Rd-dependent oxidoreductases from several anaerobic bacteria, both mesophilic and hyperthermophilic. FAD was shown to be essential for activity in reconstitution assays and could not be replaced by flavin mononucleotide (FMN). The bound FAD has a midpoint potential of -173 mV at 23 degrees C (-193 mV at 80 degrees C). Like native NROR, the recombinant enzyme catalyzed the NADPH-dependent reduction of rubredoxin both at high (80 degrees C) and low (23 degrees C) temperatures, consistent with its proposed role in the superoxide reduction pathway. This is the first demonstration of in vitro superoxide reduction to hydrogen peroxide using NAD(P)H as the electron donor in an SOR-mediated pathway.