Over-expression of a protein disulfide isomerase gene from Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus, enhances heat stress tolerance in rice

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High temperature (HT) stress is a major environmental stress that limits agricultural production worldwide. Discovery and application of genes promoting high temperature tolerance is essential to enhance crop tolerance to heat stress. Proteins associated with chaperone and protein folding plays an important role in the high temperature stress response of plants. MTH1745 (MtPDI), a disulfide isomerase-like protein (PDI) with a chaperone function and disulfide isomerase activity from Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus delta H, was selected for studying the heat stress tolerance using an ectopic expression method in rice. Through molecular identification via quantitative real-time PCR and western blot, we demonstrated that the MtPDI gene was expressed stably in transgenic rice. Heat stress tolerance and survival ratio were significantly improved in seedling transgenic rice. At the same time, proline content, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities were increased in MtPDI transgenic rice with a reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Moreover, increased content of thiols group was discovered in transgenic plants. These results indicate that heterologous expression of MtPDI from extremophiles could confer heat stress tolerance of transgenic rice through the accumulation of proline content, the synergistic increase of the antioxidant enzymes activity and elevated production of more thiols group, which finally ameliorated the oxidative damage.