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JXB Advance Access published online on October 23, 2009
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/erp300
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© 2009 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

Overexpression of the CBF2 transcriptional activator in Arabidopsis delays leaf senescence and extends plant longevity

Michal Sharabi-Schwager1, Amnon Lers1, Alon Samach2, Charles L. Guy3 and Ron Porat1,*

1Department of Postharvest Science of Fresh Produce, ARO, the Volcani Center, PO Box 6, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
2The Robert H Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, PO Box 12, Rehovot 76100, Israel
3Department of Environmental Horticulture, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

* To whom correspondence should addressed: E-mail: rporat{at}volcani.agri.gov.il

Leaf senescence is a programmed developmental process governed by various endogenous and exogenous factors, such as the plant developmental stage, leaf age, phytohormone levels, darkness, and exposure to stresses. It was found that, in addition to its well-documented role in the enhancement of plant frost tolerance, overexpression of the C-repeat/dehydration responsive element binding factor 2 (CBF2) gene in Arabidopsis delayed the onset of leaf senescence and extended the life span of the plants by approximately 2 weeks. This phenomenon was exhibited both during developmental leaf senescence and during senescence of detached leaves artificially induced by either darkness or phytohormones. Transcriptome analysis using the Affymetrix ATH1 genome array revealed that overexpression of CBF2 significantly influenced the expression of 286 genes in mature leaf tissue. In addition to 30 stress-related genes, overexpression of CBF2 also affected the expression of 24 transcription factor (TF) genes, and 20 genes involved in protein metabolism, degradation, and post-translational modification. These results indicate that overexpression of CBF2 not only increases frost tolerance, but also affects other developmental processes, most likely through interactions with additional TFs and protein modification genes. The present findings shed new light on the crucial relationship between plant stress tolerance and longevity, as reported for other eukaryotic organisms.

Key words: Arabidopsis, CBF, longevity, senescence, stress

Received 13 July 2009; Revised 10 September 2009 Accepted 11 September 2009


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