Molecules and Cells

Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology (한국분자세포생물학회)
권호 표지

CaWRKY2, a Chili Pepper Transcription Factor, Is Rapidly Induced by Incompatible Plant Pathogens

  • Oh, Sang-Keun (Plant Genome Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Yi, So Young (Plant Genome Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Yu, Seung Hun (Laboratory of Plant Pathology, Chungnam National University) ;
  • Moon, Jae Sun (Plant Genome Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Park, Jeong Mee (Plant Genome Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Choi, Doil (Plant Genome Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology)
  • Received : 2006.03.09
  • Accepted : 2006.05.20
  • Published : 2006.08.31
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

WRKY family proteins are a class of plant-specific transcription factors involved in stress response signaling pathways. In this study a gene encoding a putative WRKY protein was isolated from a pepper EST database (http://genepool.kribb.re.kr). The cDNA, named Capsicum annuum WRKY2 (CaWRKY2), encodes a putative polypeptide of 548 amino acids, containing two WRKY domains with zinc finger motifs and two potential nuclear localization signals. Northern blot analyses showed that CaWRKY2 mRNA was preferentially induced during incompatible interactions of pepper plants with PMMoV, Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae 61, and Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. vesicatoria race 3. Furthermore, CaWRKY2 transcripts were strongly induced by wounding and ethephon treatment, whereas only moderate expression was detected following treatment with salicylic acid and jasmonic acid. CaWRKY2 was translocated to the nucleus when a CaWRKY2-smGFP fusion construct was expressed in onion epidermal cells. CaWRKY2 also had transcriptional activation activity in yeast. Taken together our data suggest that CaWRKY2 is a pathogen-inducible transcription factor that may have a role in early defense responses to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

Supported by : Korea Science and Engineering Foundation

References

  1. Ausubel, F. M., Katagiri, F., Mindrinos, M., and Glazebrook, J. (1995) Use of Arabidopsis thaliana defense-related mutants to dissect the plant response to pathogens. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 4189−4196
  2. Berzal-Herranz, A., de la Cruz, A., Tenllado, F., Diaz-Ruiz, J. R., Lopez, L., et al. (1995) The Capsicum $L^3$ gene-mediated resistance against the tobamoviruses is elicited by the coat protein. Virology 209, 498−505 https://doi.org/10.1006/viro.1995.1282
  3. Boukema, I. W. (1982) Resistance to TMV in Capsicum chacoense Hunz. Is governed by an allele of the L-locus. Capsicum Newsl. 3, 47−48
  4. Chen, C. and Chen, Z. (2000) Isolation and charcterization of two pathogen- and salicylic acid-induced genes encoding WRKYDNA binding proteins form tobacco. Plant Mol. Biol. 42, 387−396 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006399311615
  5. Chen, C. and Chen, Z. (2002) Potentiation of developmentally regulated plant defense response by AtWRKY18, a pathogeninduced Arabidopsis transcription factor. Plant Physiol. 129, 706−716 https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.001057
  6. Church, G. M. and Gilbert, W. (1984) Genomic sequecing. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 81, 1991−1995
  7. Dangl, J. L., Dietrich, R. A., and Richberg, M. H. (1996) Death don't have no mercy: cell death programs in plant-microbe interactions. Plant Cell 8, 1793–1807 https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.8.10.1793
  8. Dellagi, A., Heilbronn, J., Avrova, H. O., Montesano, M., Palva, E. T., et al. (2000) A potato gene encoding a WRKY-like transcription factor is induced in interactions with Erwinia carotovora subsp. atroseptica and Phytophthora infestans and is coregulated with class I endochitinase expression. Mol. Plant Microbe Interact. 13, 1092−1101 https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI.2000.13.10.1092
  9. Eulgem, T., Rushton, P. J., Schmelzer, E., Hahlbrock, K., and Somssich, I. E. (1999) Early nuclear events in plant defence singalling: rapid gene activation by WRKY transcription factors. EMBO J. 18, 4689−4699
  10. Eulgem, T., Rushton, P. J., Robatzek, S., and Somssich, I. E. (2000) The WRKY superfamily of plant transcription factors. Trends Plant Sci. 5, 199−206 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1360-1385(00)01600-9
  11. Hammond-Kosack, K. E. and Jones, J. D. (1996) Resistance genedependent plant defense responses. Plant Cell 8, 1773−1791 https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.8.10.1773
  12. Hara, K., Yagi, M., Kusano, T., and Sano, H. (2000) Rapid systemic accumulation of transcripts encoding a tobacco WRKY transcription factor upon wounding. Mol. Gen. Genet. 263, 30−37
  13. Huang, H. C., Schuurink, R., Denny, T. P., Atkinson, M. M., Baker, C. J., et al. (1988) Molecular cloning of a Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae gene cluster that enables Pseudomonas fluorescens to elicit the hypersensitive response in tobacco plants. J. Bacteriol. 170, 4748−4756
  14. Hwang, I., Lim, S. M., and Shaw, P. D. (1992) Cloning and characterization of pathogenicity genes from Xanthomonas campestris pv. glycines. J. Bacteriol. 174, 1923−1931
  15. Ishiguro, S. and Nakamura, K. (1994) Characterization of a cDNA encoding a novel DNA-binding protein, SPF1, that recognizes SP8 sequences in the 5′ upstream regions of genes coding for sporamin and $\beta$-amylase from sweet potato. Mol. Gen. Genet. 244, 563–571
  16. Johnson, C. S., Kolevski, B., and Smyth, D. R. (2002) TRANSPARENTTESTA GLABRA2, a trichome and seed coat development gene of Arabidopsis, encodes a WRKY transcription factor. Plant Cell 14, 1359−1375 https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.001404
  17. Kim, C. Y., Lee, S. H., Park, H. C., Bae, C. G., Cheong, Y. H., et al. (2000) Identification of rice blast fungal elicitor-responsivegenes by differential display analysis. Mol. Plant Microbe Interact. 13, 470–474 https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI.2000.13.4.470
  18. Kim, S., An, C. S., Hong, Y.-N., and Lee, K.-W. (2004) Coldinducible transcription factor, CaCBF, is associated with a homeodomain leucine zipper protein in hot pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Mol. Cells 18, 300−308
  19. Lee, S. J., Suh, M.-C., Kim, S., Kwon, J.-K., Kim, M., et al. (2001) Molecular cloning of a novel pathogen-inducible cDNA encoding a putative acyl-CoA synthetase from Capsicum annuum L. Plant Mol. Biol. 46, 661−671 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011677028605
  20. Lee, S. J., Lee, M. Y., Yi, S. Y., Oh, S. K., Choi, S. H., et al. (2002) PPI1: A novel pathogen-induced basic region-leucine zipper (bZip) transcription factor from pepper. Mol. Plant Microbe Interact. 15, 540−548 https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI.2002.15.6.540
  21. Nakielny, S. and Dreyfuss, G. (1999) Transport of proteins and RNAs in and out of the nucleus. Cell 99, 677–690 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81666-9
  22. Rushton, P. J. and Somssich, I. E. (1998) Transcriptional control of plant genes responsive to pathogens. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 1, 311−315 https://doi.org/10.1016/1369-5266(88)80052-9
  23. Rushton, P. J., Torres, T. J., Parniske, M., Wernert, P., Hahlbrock, K., et al. (1996) Interaction of elicitor-induced DNA-binding proteins with elicitor response elements in the promoters of parsley PR1 genes. EMBO J. 15, 5690−5700
  24. Sun, C., Palmqvist, S., Olsson, H., Boren, M., Ahlandsberg, S., et al. (2003) A novel WRKY transcription factor, SUSIBA2, participates in sugar signaling in barley by binding to the sugar-responsive elements of the iso1 promoter. Plant Cell 15, 2076-2092 https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.014597
  25. Tai, H. L., Chen, C. C., and Yeh, K. T. (1999) Xanthogranulomatous cystitis associated with anaerobic bacterial infection. J. Urol. 162, 795–796 https://doi.org/10.1097/00005392-199909010-00051
  26. Triezenberg, S. J. (1995) Structure and function of transcriptional activation domains. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 5, 190−196 https://doi.org/10.1016/0959-437X(95)80007-7
  27. Wang, Z., Yang, P., Fan, B., and Chen, Z. (1998) An oligo selection procedure for identification of sequence-specific DNAbinding activities associated with the plant defense response. Plant J. 16, 515−522 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-313x.1998.00311.x
  28. Xu, Y. H., Wang, J. W., Wang, S., Wang, J. Y., and Chen, X. Y. (2004) Characterization of GaWRKY1, a cotton transcription factor that regulates the sesquiterpene synthase gene (+)-deltacadinene synthase-A. Plant Physiol. 135, 507-515 https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.104.038612
  29. Yang, Y., Shah, J., and Klessig, D. F. (1997) Signal perception and transduction in plant defense responses. Genes Dev. 11, 1621– 1639 https://doi.org/10.1101/gad.11.13.1621
  30. Yang, P., Wang, Z., Fan, B., Chen, C., and Chen, Z. (1999) A pathogen- and salicylic acid-induced WRKY DNA-binding activity recognizes the elicitor response element of the tobacco class I chitinase gene promoter. Plant J. 18, 141−149 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-313X.1999.00437.x
  31. Yi, S. Y., Kim, J. H., Joung, Y. H., Lee, S., Kim, W. T., et al. (2004) The pepper transcription factor CaPF1 confers pathogen and freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 136, 2862−2874 https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.104.042903
  32. Yu, D., Chen, C., and Chen, Z. (2001) Evidence for an important role of WRKY DNA binding proteins in the regulation of NPR1 gene expression. Plant Cell 13, 1527−1540 https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.13.7.1527
  33. Zhang, Z. L., Xie, Z., Zou, X., Casaretto, J., Ho, T. H., et al. (2004) A rice WRKY gene encodes a transcriptional repressor of the gibberellin signaling pathway in aleurone cells. Plant Physiol. 134, 1500-1513 https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.103.034967