Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (2012) 25, 1015-1025

Keisuke Mase, Takahito Mizuno, Nobuaki Ishihama, Takayuki Fujii, Hitoshi Mori, Motoichiro Kodama and Hirofumi Yoshioka (2012)
Ethylene signaling pathway and MAPK cascades are required for AAL toxin-induced programmed cell death
Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 25 (8), 1015-1025
Abstract: Programmed cell death (PCD), known as hypersensitive response cell death, has an important role in plant defense response. The signaling pathway of PCD remains unknown. We employed AAL toxin and Nicotiana umbratica to analysis plant PCD. AAL toxin is a pathogenicity factor of the necrotrophic pathogen Alternaria alternata f. sp. lycopersici. N. umbratica is sensitive to AAL toxin, susceptible to pathogens, and effective in Tobacco rattle virus-based virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). VIGS analyses indicated that AAL toxin-triggered cell death (ACD) is dependent upon the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase kinase MEK2, which is upstream of both salicylic acid-induced protein kinase (SIPK) and wound-induced protein kinase (WIPK) responsible for ethylene (ET) synthesis. ET treatment of MEK2-silenced N. umbratica re-established ACD. In SIPK- and WIPK-silenced N. umbratica, ACD was compromised and ET accumulation was not observed. However, in contrast to the case of MEK2-silenced plants, ET treatment did not induce cell death in SIPK- and WIPK-silenced plants. This work showed that ET-dependent pathway and MAP kinase cascades are required in ACD. Our results suggested that MEK2-SIPK/WIPK cascades have roles in ET biosynthesis; however, SIPK and WIPK have other roles in ET signaling or another pathway leading to cell death by AAL toxin.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Hirofumi Yoshioka

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
resistance/tolerance/defence of host
molecular biology - genes

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Alternaria alternata