Abstract
To initiate defense responses against invasion of pathogenic organisms, animals and plants must recognize microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). In this study, the elicitor activity of bacterial DNA on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana was examined. EcoRI-digested plasmid DNA induced defense responses such as generation of reactive oxygen species and deposition of callose, whereas SmaI- and HapII-digested plasmid DNA and EcoRI-digested herring DNA did not remarkably induce these responses. Further, methylation of the CpG sequence of plasmid DNA and Escherichia coli DNA reduced the level of the defense responses. The endocytosis inhibitors wortmannin and amantadine significantly inhibited DNA-induced defense responses. These results suggest that non-methylated CpG DNA, as a MAMP, induced defense responses in Arabidopsis and that non-methylated DNA seems to be translocated into the cytoplasm by endocytosis.
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Abbreviations
- LPS:
-
Lipopolysaccharide
- MAMP:
-
Microbe-associated molecular pattern
- TLR:
-
Toll-like receptor
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Acknowledgments
We thank the Plant Cell Bank, RIKEN (Tokyo, Japan) for Arabidopsis T-87 suspension-cultured cells and Dr. Silke Robatzek (Max-Planck-Institute für Züchtungsforschung, Köln, Germany) for seeds of transgenic Arabidopsis Col-0 possessing the FRK1p:GUS chimeric gene.
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Yakushiji, S., Ishiga, Y., Inagaki, Y. et al. Bacterial DNA activates immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana . J Gen Plant Pathol 75, 227–234 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10327-009-0162-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10327-009-0162-4