Abstract

A transgenic approach was taken to manipulate the levels of pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) in rice, in order to investigate whether alteration of ethanol fermentation can affect anaerobic tolerance. A line transformed with an antisense Adh1 construct had only 4–8% of the ADH activity of untransformed plants. This line showed reduced ethanol production and coleoptile growth under anoxia. Mature plants had reduced survival when submerged in water and exposed to anoxia, suggesting that ADH plays an essential role in seed germination and plant survival in the absence of O2. A transgenic line transformed with a cotton Adh2 cDNA in the sense orientation relative to a constitutive promoter, showed 3–4-fold more ADH activity than either untransformed controls, or a flooding-tolerant rice variety (FR13A), both in air and under hypoxia. However, ethanol production by this line was only slightly higher than that of untransformed controls, and there was no increase in survival following anoxia treatments.

Three independent transgenic lines containing the ricePdc1 cDNA driven by an anaerobically-inducible promoter (6XARE) showed an increase in PDC1 polypeptide in shoots, but not in roots or endosperm. A moderate increase in PDC activity and ethanol production was observed in shoots of these lines under anaerobic conditions, as well as decreased survival of shoots when submerged and exposed to anoxia. F1 plants containing both the PDC and ADH constructs showed levels of anoxia-tolerance similar to those of untransformed plants. These results suggest that over-production of PDC may be toxic to rice plants because of increased acetaldehyde. Consistent with this view, acetaldehyde levels were appreciably higher in plants over-producing PDC, compared with untransformed plants, or hybrid lines containing both the PDC and ADH constructs.