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THE EXPRESSION OF ADH-GUS IN TRANSGENIC ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA.  Kalin C. Lee¹, Anna-Lisa Paul², and Robert J. Ferl².  ¹Purdue University, ²University of Florida

     The Adh gene becomes active when the Arabidopsis thaliana plant is in certain stressful environments.  The GUS reporter attached to the Adh is expressed when the Adh is active, that is, under stressful environments.  When Arabidopsis is placed in a certain histochemical stain this expression can be visualized as a blue coloring in the plant.  This could be used to monitor plant health or environmental conditions.  The objective of this study is to calibrate the Adh-GUS transgene so monitoring can be conducted.  The experimental procedure was to analyze images of stained plants that show different patterns and intensities of blue coloring depending upon the type of stress they were subjected to.  These would be compared with reverse transcriptase PCR (rtPCR) / gel electrophoresis, and real-time PCR.  The images showed specific patterns for different stress types.  The gel electrophoresis data showed that the stain intensities do indeed correspond to the amount of active Adh, and thus to the amount of stress.  

     (Supported by NASA’s Spaceflight and Life Sciences Training Program (SLSTP))