Fig. 4.

Effect of PeSCL7 expression on drought tolerance in the Arabidopsis wild type, scl7-1 mutant, and transgenic plants. (A) Arabidopsis wild-type, scl7-1, and transgenic plants were grown for 18 d in a growth chamber under normal growth conditions (Control), as indicated. Thereafter, water was withheld for 15 d. A representative plant is shown. (B, C) Comparison of α-amylase and SOD activity among four different genotypes. 10-day-old seedlings were treated with 0 or 100 mM NaCl or 200 mM mannitol in liquid MS medium for 5 h, and then the enzyme activities were assayed. Values are mean ±SE (n=3 experiments, *P <0.05). (D) Estimation of AMY1 and Cu/Zn SOD transcript levels in the wild type (a) and 35S-PeSCL7 (b, c, d) by RT-PCR. Total RNA was isolated from leaves of 10-d-old seedlings treated with 0 (a, b), 100 mM NaCl (c), or 200 mM mannitol (d) in liquid MS medium for 5 h. The transcript levels were estimated by RT-PCR with specific primers for AMY1 and Cu/Zn SOD. Tubulin transcript levels served as an equal loading standard. The experiment was repeated three times, and the typical result of an ethidium bromide-stained agarose gel is presented. (This figure is available in colour at JXB online.)