• BMB Reports
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.748-754
• /
• 2005

Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) causes a bacterial speck disease in tomato and Arabidopsis. In Chinese cabbage, in which host-pathogen interactions are not well understood, Pst does not cause disease but rather elicits a hypersensitive response. Pst induces localized cell death and $H_2O_2$ accumulation, a typical hypersensitive response, in infiltrated cabbage leaves. Pre-inoculation with Pst was found to induce resistance to Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora, a pathogen that causes soft rot disease in Chinese cabbage. An examination of the expression profiles of 12 previously identified Pst-inducible genes revealed that the majority of these genes were activated by salicylic acid or BTH; however, expressions of the genes encoding PR4 and a class IV chitinase were induced by ethephon, an ethylene-releasing compound, but not by salicylic acid, BTH, or methyl jasmonate. This implies that Pst activates both salicylate-dependent and salicylate-independent defense responses in Chinese cabbage.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.232-239
• /
• 2007

$HrpN_{EP}$, from the gram-negative pathogen, Erwinia pyrifoliae, is a member of the harpin group of proteins, inducing pathogen resistance and hypersensitive cell death in plants. When the $hrpN_{EP}$ gene driven by the OsCc1 promoter was introduced into tobacco plants via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, their resistance to the necrotrophic fungal pathogen, Botrytis cinerea, increased. Resistance to B. cinerea was correlated with enhanced induction of SA-dependent genes such as PR-1a, PR2, PR3 and Chia5, of JA-dependent genes such as PR-1b, and of genes related to ethylene production, such as NT-EFE26, NT-1A1C, DS321, NT-ACS1 and NT-ACS2. However the expression of NPR1, which is thought to be essential for multiple-resistance, did not increase. Since the pattern of expression of defense-related genes in $hrpN_{EP}$-expressing tobacco differed from that in plants expressing $hpaG_{Xoo}$ from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae, these results suggest that different harpins can affect the expression of different defense-related genes, as well as resistance to different plant pathogens.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.375-383
• /
• 2008

It is well known that NtMEK2, a tobacco MAPK kinase, is the upstream kinase of both salicylic acid-induced protein kinase and wound-induced protein kinase. In addition, expression of $NtMEK2^{DD}$, a constitutively active mutant of NtMEK2, is known to induce multiple defense responses in tobacco. In this study, transgenic rice plants that contained an active or inactive mutant of NtMEK2 under the control of a steroid inducible promoter were generated and used to determine if a similar MAPK cascade is involved in disease resistance in rice. The expression of $NtMEK2^{DD}$ in transgenic rice plants resulted in HR-like cell death. The observed cell death was preceded by the activation of endogenous rice 48-kDa MBP kinase, which is also activated by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, the bacterial blight pathogen of rice. In addition, prolonged activation of the MAPK induced the generation of hydrogen peroxide and up-regulated the expression of defense-related genes including the pathogenesis-related genes, peroxidases and glutathione S-transferases. These results demonstrate that NtMEK2 is functionally replaceable with rice MAPK kinase in inducing the activation of the downstream MAPK, which in turn induces multiple defense responses in rice.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.234-240
• /
• 2007

The DcuS-R two-component system of Escherichia coli senses $C_{4}-dicarboxylates$ of the medium and regulates expression of the genes related to utilization of them. It is known that phospho-DcuR induces expression of genes such as the dcuB-fumB operon, the frdABCD operon, and the dctA gene. We analyzed promoters of the dcuS-R operon to elucidate the transcriptional regulation system. We found a novel internal promoter within the dcuS gene that is regulated by the transcriptional regulator, CRP-cAMP, in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.46 no.6
• /
• pp.790-800
• /
• 2022

Background: Panax ginseng Meyer is one of the most valuable medicinal plants which is enriched in anti-microbe secondary metabolites and widely used in traditional medicine. Botrytis cinerea is a necrotrophic fungus that causes gray mold disease in a broad range of hosts. B. cinerea could overcome the ginseng defense and cause serious leaf and root diseases with unknown mechanism. Methods: We conducted simultaneous transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of the host to investigate the defense response of ginseng affected by B. cinerea. The gene deletion and replacement were then performed to study the pathogenic gene in B. cinerea during ginseng - fungi interaction. Results: Upon B. cinerea infection, ginseng defense responses were switched from the activation to repression, thus the expression of many defense genes decreased and the biosynthesis of antifungal metabolites were reduced. Particularly, ginseng metabolites like kaempferol, quercetin and luteolin which could inhibit fungi growth were decreased after B. cinerea infection. B. cinerea quercetin dioxygenase (Qdo) involved in catalyzing flavonoids degradation and ∆BcQdo mutants showed increased substrates accumulation and reduced disease development. Conclusion: This work indicates the flavonoids play a role in ginseng defense and BcQdo involves in B. cinerea virulence towards the P. ginseng. B. cinerea promotes disease development in ginseng by suppressing of defense related genes expression and reduction of antifungal metabolites biosynthesis.

• Animal cells and systems
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.337-343
• /
• 2003

Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) is a signal molecule in the activation of defense responses in plants. In this study, we isolated 15 MeJA-inducible genes by subtractive hybridization. These genes encode two myrosinase-binding proteins, five lipase-like proteins, a polygalacturonase inhibitor, a putative chlorophyll-associated protein, a terpene synthase, a dehydroascorbate reductase, an ascorbate oxidase, a cysteine protease, an O-methyltransferase, and an epithiospecifier protein. Northern analysis showed that most of the Chinese cabbage genes are barely expressed in healthy leaves, but are strongly induced by MeJA treatment. We also examined whether these MeJA-inducible genes were activated by ethethon, BTH, and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst), a nonhost pathogen of Chinese cabbage. The results showed that none of the MeJA-inducible genes was strongly induced by ethephon or by BTH. The genes encoding lipase-like proteins and a myrosinase-binding protein were weakly induced by Pst. Other MeJA-inducible genes were not activated at all by the pathogen.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.386-393
• /
• 2010

In order to study disease resistance mechanisms in rice against the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea, we screened fungal elicitor-responsive genes from rice suspension-cultured cells treated with fungal elicitors employing differential hybridization (DH). By DH screening, 31 distinct rice clones were isolated and a majority of them were full-length cDNAs encoding pathogenesisrelated (PR) genes. Sixteen of the 31 genes were upregulated at 4, 8, and 12 h following fungal elicitor treatment. To elucidate the effect of signal molecules and biotic elicitors on the regulation of rice defense genes, we further characterized the transcriptional expression patterns of representative isolated PR genes; OsGlu1, OsGlu2, OsTLP, OsRLK, and OsPR-10, following treatment with fungal elicitor, phytohormones, cycloheximide, and inhibitors of protein phosphorylation. Jasmonic acid (JA) induced transcriptional expression of OsGlu1, OsTLP, and OsRLK, but not of OsGlu2 and OsPR-10 at any of the tested time points. Salicylic acid (SA) and abscisic acid weakly induced the expression of OsTLP and OsRLK. SA showed an antagonistic effect with fungal elicitor and JA. Cycloheximide suppressed all these genes upon elicitor treatment, except for OsGlu2. Staurosporine only induced the expression of OsRLK. Application of calyculin A strongly induced OsRLK expression, but suppressed the expression of OsGlu2. Our study yielded a number of PR genes that play a role in defense mechanisms against the rice blast fungus, as well as contribute towards the elucidation of crosstalk between phytohormones and other modifications during defense signaling.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.343-354
• /
• 2014

Rice blast disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae is one of the most serious diseases of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) in most rice-growing regions of the world. In order to investigate early response genes in rice, we utilized the transcriptome analysis approach using a 300 K tilling microarray to rice leaves infected with compatible and incompatible M. oryzae strains. Prior to the microarray experiment, total RNA was validated by measuring the differential expression of rice defense-related marker genes (chitinase 2, barwin, PBZ1, and PR-10) by RT-PCR, and phytoalexins (sakuranetin and momilactone A) with HPLC. Microarray analysis revealed that 231 genes were up-regulated (>2 fold change, p < 0.05) in the incompatible interaction compared to the compatible one. Highly expressed genes were functionally characterized into metabolic processes and oxidation-reduction categories. The oxidative stress response was induced in both early and later infection stages. Biotic stress overview from MapMan analysis revealed that the phytohormone ethylene as well as signaling molecules jasmonic acid and salicylic acid is important for defense gene regulation. WRKY and Myb transcription factors were also involved in signal transduction processes. Additionally, receptor-like kinases were more likely associated with the defense response, and their expression patterns were validated by RT-PCR. Our results suggest that candidate genes, including receptor-like protein kinases, may play a key role in disease resistance against M. oryzae attack.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.195-206
• /
• 2005

Spatial and temporal expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) gene and proteins has been recognized as inducible defense response in pepper plants. Gene expression and/or protein accumulation of PR-1, $\beta-1,3-glucanase$ and chitinase was predominantly found in pepper plants during the inoculations by Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria, Phytophthora capsici and Colletotrichum coccodes. PR-1 and chitinase genes were also induced in pepper plants in response to environmental stresses, such as high salinity and drought. PR-1 and chitinase gene expressions by biotic and abiotic stresses were regulated by their own promoter regions containing several stress-related cis-acting elements. Overexpression of pepper PR-1 or chitinase genes in heterogeneous transgenic plants showed enhanced disease resistance as well as environmental stress tolerances. In this review, we focused on the putative function of pepper PR-1, $\beta-1,3-glucanase$ and chitinase proteins and/or genes at the biochemical, molecular and cytological aspects.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.139-143
• /
• 2004

The antioxidant responsive element (ARE) is a cis-acting regulatory element of genes encoding phase II detoxification enzymes and antioxidant proteins, such as NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1, glutathione S-transferases, and glutamate-cysteine ligase. Interestingly, it has been reported that Nrf2 (NF-E2-related factor 2) regulates a wide array of ARE-driven genes in various cell types. Nrf2 is a basic leucine zipper transcription factor, which was originally identified as a binding protein of locus control region of ss-globin gene. The DNA binding sequence of Nrf2 and ARE sequence are very similar, and many studies demonstrated that Nrf2 binds to the ARE sites leading to up-regulation of downstream genes. The function of Nrf2 and its downstream target genes suggests that the Nrf2-ARE pathway is important in the cellular antioxidant defense system. In support of this, many studies showed a critical role of Nrf2 in cellular protection and anti-carcinogenicity, implying that the Nrf2-ARE pathway may serve as a therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases and cancers, in which oxidative stress is closely implicated.