Abstract
A novel shaggy-like kinase cDNA (TaSK5) was isolated from winter wheat. Northern blots revealed TaSK5 was notably induced by cold and NaCl treatments and lesser by drought and ABA treatments. Complementation experiments utilizing a yeast shaggy-like kinase mutant (Δmck1) revealed that TaSK5 is functional in the yeast to suppress the cold- and salt- sensitive phenotypes of the mutant. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing TaSK5 displayed no phenotypic differences from the willd type plants under standard growth conditions. However, transgenic plants significantly improved survival after drought stress compared to the wild type. Interestingly, tolerance against freezing and salt stresses was not altered in the transgenic plants. A microarray analysis revealed that a number of abiotic stress response genes was costitutively induced at non stress conditions.
