DHN10 dehydrin is not expressed in transgenic Solanum species plants when the Dhn10 gene is fused to a glucosyl transferase promoter.

A gene fusion system was used to study the expression pattern of the Dhn10 gene, encoding the DHN10 dehydrin protein in transgenic Solanum tuberosum plants carrying a combined GT-Dhn10 transgen in which the glucosyl transferase (GT) promoter region was fused to the coding sequence of the Dhn10 gene. Expression of the native Dhn10 gene and the GT-Dhn10 constructs was analysed in regenerated S. tuberosum transgenic plants, both at the transcript accumulation and protein levels. We showed that the expression of both the GT-Dhn10 transgen and the Dhn10 gene was regulated in the regenerated plants at the transcriptional level in an independent way, but only the protein product of the native Dhn10 expression was detected. The transcription product of the GT-Dhn10 transgen did not affect the expression of the Dhn10 gene either at the transcription level or at the protein level. The GT-Dhn10 plants did not show changes in freezing capacity compared to the control, non-transgenic ones.