Activation of phenylpropanoid metabolism in sesame by over-expression of carrot calmodulin gene.

Transgenic sesame (Sesamum schinzianum ASCH.) was produced by Agrobacterium-mediated transfection of a carrot calmodulin gene, cam-4, which was specifically expressed upon the contact of carrot cells with oligogalacturonide elicitor. Coding region of cam-4 was ligated to the downstream of 35S promoter of cauliflower mosaic virus and subcloned into pMATGBO-DB3.1. A. tumefaciens 4404 was transformed with the constructed vector, and the crown gall tissues formed in the sesame seedlings were transferred onto appropriate media to obtain the re-differentiated plants. The reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction followed by Southern blot analysis revealed that cam-4 gene was appreciably expressed in the transgenic plants. Activities of two key enzyme regulating phenylpropanoid metabolisms, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and caffeic acid O-methyltransferase, and the contents of phenolic compounds in the transformed sesame were markedly elevated as compared with those of the control. These results suggest that the over-expression of cam-4 gene enhances the biosynthetic activities of phenylpropane derivatives in the transformed sesame plants.