Overexpression of heat stress-responsive TaMBF1c, a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Multiprotein Bridging Factor, confers heat tolerance in both yeast and rice.Previously, we found an ethylene-responsive transcriptional co-activator, which was significantly induced by heat stress (HS) in both thermo-sensitive and thermo-tolerant wheat.  Most importantly, transgenic rice plants engineered to overexpress TaMBF1c showed higher thermotolerance than control plants at both seedling and reproductive stages.  Collectively, the present data suggest that TaMBF1c plays a pivotal role in plant thermotolerance and holds promising possibilities for improving heat tolerance in crops.
THERM