The molecular and phenotypic characterization of the Arabidopsis P4H7 RNAi transformed plants
2007
Fatihi, A.
Prolyl 4-hydroxylases mediate the conversion of proline to 4-hydroxyproline, a post-translational modification that lead to the degradation of the transcription factor HIF (hypoxia-inducible factor), the global regulator of the hypoxic response in mammals. The activation of the family of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) under low oxygen conditions triggers the up-regulation of many genes. The evolutionary conserved role of prolyl 4-hydroxylases (P4Hs) in oxygen sensing in many organisms might also suggest their involvement in hypoxia signaling in plants. The Arabidopsis thaliana P4H gene family which comprises 13 putative homologues is grouped into two clusters according to a multiple sequence alignment. It was recently reported that the Arabidopsis P4H transcripts are differentially expressed in response to hypoxia, anoxia and mechanical wounding. P4H7 showed a strong induction in roots treated with 5% oxygen and this raised the possibility that the expression of this gene correlates with hypoxia and therefore might play a role in the oxygen sensing system in plants. This role can be investigated by using post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) technology and its ability to knock down the expression of a whole multigene family whose members possess highly conserved regions. The aim of this project was the molecular and phenotypic characterization of transformed Arabidopsis thaliana plants by the P4H7 RNAi gene construct. To this end we transformed Arabidopsis thaliana plants by P4H7-RNAi and characterize them in terms of P4H gene expression. Particular attention was paid to P4H7 gene and other P4Hs that showed a relatively high sequence homology such as P4H2 and P4H4.
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