The anaerobic response of plants, induced by submerging roots in water, involves drastic changes in the pattern of gene expression. Normal protein synthesis is replaced with the almost exclusive synthesis of approximately 20 anaerobic peptides. The mRNA for the most thoroughly studied anaerobic protein, alcohol dehydrogenase, appears to be highly regulated during anaerobiosis, with altered patterns of RNA synthesis, translatability and turnover. This response has been studied primarily in maize, a plant not yet amenable to transformation and regeneration. The proposed experiments are designed to analyze the anaerobic response, particularly that of alcohol dehydrogenase, in a plant suitable for transformation, and to make use of in vitro mutagenesis and transformation to define genic sequences important in establishing anaerobic patterns of increased transcription, preferential translation and message stabilization.
