Temperature-regulated proteins in plants

Abstract

Studies in this thesis concern expression of one class of small HSPs (sHSPs) in field grown desert plant species and the isolation of a new HSP gene encoding an sHSP targeted to plant mitochondria. Expression of class I, cytosolic sHSPs was assessed in three desert species: Screwbean Mesquite, Baja Fairyduster, and Sweet Acacia. Total leaf protein, and if available, flower and pod protein, was extracted from samples and analyzed by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. Sweet Acacia showed strong sHSP expression in leaves with an apparent diurnal pattern of increased expression in the hotter PM. Screwbean Mesquite pods showed significant sHSP expression, which was not correlated to temperature. The isolation and sequence analysis of a gene encoding a mitochondrion-localized sHSP from Arabidopsis was completed. Comparisons to other plant sHSPs verified it was most similar to other mitochondrial-localized sHSPs from plants.