Enhanced tolerance to heat stress in transgenic plants expressing the GASA4 gene

We conducted a genetic yeast screen to identify Thermo-tolerance genes (TTOs) in maize kernel cDNA library. During the screening, we identified a maize clone (TTO6) that seemed to confer elevated heat tolerance in comparison to control cells. TTO6 cDNA (GenBank accession no. AY103785) encodes an 11-kDa protein which is 69% similarity to the Arabidopsis GASA4 gene. To further examine heat tolerance in Arabidopsis, we functionally characterized the GASA4 gene and found that heat induced GASA4 expression. Constitutive expression of GASA4 in Arabidopsis led to elevated heat tolerance in transgenic lines. Interestingly, endoplasmic reticulum chaperone expression analysis suggests that GASA4 influences BiP gene expression during heat stress.