Overproduction of Arabidopsis thaliana FeSOD confers oxidative stress tolerance to transgenic maize

Transgenic maize (Zea mays L.) plants have been generated by particle gun b ombardment that overproduce an Arabidopsis thaliana iron superoxide dismuta se (FeSOD). To target this enzyme into chloroplasts, the mature Fesod codin g sequence was fused to a chloroplast transit peptide from a pea ribulose-1 ,5-bisphosphate carboxylase gene. Expression of the chimeric gene was drive n by the CaMV 35S promoter. Growth characteristics and in vitro oxidative s tress tolerance of transgenic lines grown in control and chilling temperatu res were evaluated. The transgenic line with the highest transgenic FeSOD a ctivities had enhanced tolerance toward methyl viologen and had increased g rowth rates.