DNA repair mechanisms in UV-B tolerant plants

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms responsible for UV-B irradiation-induced DNA damage repair in plants is important for agricultural technology in that it will potentially enable the development of plants with enhanced growth rates and crop yields. Unlike yeast and mammalian cells, intact plants use sunlight for photosynthesis and are thus chronically exposed to the UV band wavelengths present in solar radiation. UV induces DNA damage, which can be corrected by DNA repair mechanisms such as photoreactivation and excision repair. Recently, details of several DNA repair mechanisms have become clear in plants. We made transgenic rice overexpressing genes involved in excision repair or plant-specific DNA repair, and measured their tolerance to UV-B. We found that OsUV-DDB2 and OsSEND-1 transgenic lines had higher tolerance to UV-B than the wild type. In this review, recent advances in understanding repair of DNA damage from UV-B radiation in plants and the prospects for the development of UV resistant plants are discussed.