ABSTRACT
Abstract Drought stress is the main limiting factor of soybean yield. Currently, genetic engineering has been one important tool in the development of drought-tolerant cultivars. A widely used strategy is the fusion of genes that confer tolerance under the control of the CaMV35S constitutive promoter; however, stress-responsive promoters would constitute the best alternative to the generation of drought-tolerant crops. We characterized the promoter of α-galactosidase soybean (GlymaGAL) gene that was previously identified as highly up-regulated by drought stress. The β-glucuronidase (GUS) activity of Arabidopsis transgenic plants bearing 1000- and 2000-bp fragments of the GlymaGAL promoter fused to the uidA gene was evaluated under air-dried, polyethylene glycol (PEG) and salt stress treatments. After 24 h of air-dried and PEG treatments, the pGAL-2kb led to an increase in GUS expression in leaf and root samples when compared to the control samples. These results were corroborated by qPCR expression analysis of the uidA gene. The pGAL-1kb showed no difference in GUS activity between control and treated samples. The pGAL-2kb promoter was evaluated in transgenic soybean roots, leading to an increase in EGFP expression under air-dried treatment. Our data indicates that pGAL-2kb could be a useful tool in developing drought-tolerant cultivars by driving gene expression.
ABSTRACT
O urucum é um arbusto da família Bixaceae, utilizado na fabricação de corantes naturais para a indústria alimentícia e cosmética. No Brasil, somente nos últimos 15 anos, houve maior interesse pelo cultivo, pois se tornou uma alternativa agrícola promissora. O presente trabalho teve por objetivo identificar as abelhas visitantes das flores do urucuzeiro em Vitória da Conquista, BA. O trabalho foi conduzido no campo experimental da UESB, em uma lavoura do tipo cultivado Peruana Paulista. A coleta das abelhas visitantes foi feita na época principal de floração do urucueiro: março/abril, das 6h às 18h. Foram coletadas 3019 abelhas de 22 espécies, com predominância na visitação das 8h às 14h em relação ao número de indivíduos e número de espécies capturadas. As espécies mais freqüentes foram: Trigona spinipes (Fabricius), Apis mellifera L., Schwarziana quadripunctata (Lepeletier) e Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille). Espécies de maior porte, como Xylocopa frontalis (Olivier), Bombus morio (Swederus) e Eulaema nigrita Lepeletier, consideradas como eficientes na polinização da cultura do urucum, não foram abundantes neste estudo.
Annatto is a shrub from Bixaceae family, which natural pigment (annatto) is widely used in food and cosmetic industries. In Brazil, the interest for this crop started in the last fifteen years, once it became a promising agricultural alternative. This study was aimed at identifing visitor bees of annatto flowers at the agriculture region of Vitória da Conquista (BA). The research was carried out in the experimental field of UESB, in an experimental plot planted with the cv. Peruana Paulista. The visitor bees were collected during the main blooming period: March/April, between 6:00h and 18:00h. A total of 3,019 bees from 22 species was collected, with higher visitation during the period from 8:00 to 14:00h, regarding the number of individuals and species. The species most frequent were Trigona spinipes (Fabricius), Apis mellifera L., Schwarziana quadripunctata (Lepeletier) and Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille). Larger species as Xylocopa frontalis (Olivier), Bombus morio (Swederus) and Eulaema nigrita Lepeletier considered efficient pollinators of the urucum culture , were not abundant in the evaluated field.