Overexpression of chloroplastic monodehydroascorbate reductase enhanced tolerance to temperature and methyl viologen-mediated oxidative stresses

A tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) monodehydroascorbate reductase gene (LeMDAR) was isolated. The LeMDAR–green fluorescence protein (GFP) fusion protein was targeted to chloroplast in Arabidopsis mesophyll protoplast. RNA and protein gel blot analyses confirmed that the sense- and antisense- LeMDAR were integrated into the tomato genome. The MDAR activities and the levels of reduced ascorbate (AsA) were markedly increased in sense transgenic lines and decreased in antisense transgenic lines compared with wild-type (WT) plants. Under low and high temperature stresses, the sense transgenic plants showed lower level of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), lower thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) content, higher net photosynthetic rate (Pn), higher maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) and fresh weight compared with WT plants. The oxidizable P700 decreased more obviously in WT and antisense plants than that in sense plants at chilling temperature under low irradiance. Furthermore, the sense transgenic plants exhibited significantly lower H2O2 level, higher ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity, greater Pn and Fv/Fm under methyl viologen (MV)-mediated oxidative stresses. These results indicated that overexpression of chloroplastic MDAR played an important role in alleviating photoinhibition of PSI and PSII and enhancing the tolerance to various abiotic stresses by elevating AsA level.