TRANSGENIC TOBACCO PLANTS EXPRESSING RGP1, A GENE ENCODING A RAS-RELATED GTP-BINDING PROTEIN FROM RICE, SHOW DISTINCT MORPHOLOGICAL-CHARACTERISTICS

The rgp1 gene, originally isolated from rice seedlings, encodes a small GTP-binding protein which is related to the product of the human proto-oncogene, ras-p21. To determine the physiological role of the rgp1 protein, rgp1-p25, the coding region of rgp1 was introduced into tobacco plants in both sense and antisense orientations. Transformants, which were found to contain the rgp1 gene at up to three loci, showed distinct phenotypic changes. The most notable was a reduction in apical dominance with increased tillering, together with dwarfism or abnormal flower development or both. These effects were similarly observed in both sense and antisense transformants. Northern hybridization analysis showed that rgp1 was expressed only in phenotypically abnormal transformants and not in the apparently normal phenotypes. Furthermore, the R1 progenies from most transformants co-segregated into a 3:1 ratio for both kanamycin resistance and tillering. The expression of tgp1, a presumed tobacco homologue of rgp1, was markedly reduced in transformants expressing the antisense rgp1, whereas it was apparently unaffected in transformants with sense rgp1. These observations suggest that the phenotypic changes in antisense transformants may be mediated by an effect on native tgp1 mRNA, whereas in sense transformants the changes may be induced by over-production of rgp1-p25. The possibility that the increased tillering may be related to abnormal phytohormone metabolism or response pathways, and that rgp1 -p25 may mediate the transmission of signals in these pathways is discussed.