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Mammalian pro-apoptotic bax gene enhances tobacco resistance to pathogens

  • Biotic and Abiotic Stress
  • Published:
Plant Cell Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 07 June 2011

Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests that plants and animals may share certain biochemical commonalities in apoptosis, or programmed cell death (PCD) pathways, though plants lack key animal apoptosis related genes. In plants, PCD has many important functions including a role in immunity and resistance to pathogen infection. In this study, a rice phenylalanine ammonia-lyase promoter is used to regulate the expression of the mouse pro-apoptotic bax gene in transgenic tobacco plants. Ectopic expression of the bax negatively affects the growth of transgenic plants. Nonetheless, results show that the bax transgene is induced upon infection by plant pathogens and accumulation of Bax is observed by Western blot analysis. By estimating and measuring the extent of cell death, release of active oxygen species, and accumulation defense-associated gene transcripts, it is shown that bax transgenic plants mount a more robust cell death response compared to control plants. The bax transgenic tobacco plants are also more resistant to infection by Phytophthora parasitica and Ralstonia solanacearum, but have no obvious resistance to tobacco mosaic virus. These results substantiate past studies and illustrate the powerful effects mammalian bax genes may have on plant development and disease resistance.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the NSFC project (30471124) and New Century Excellent Scholar Project of Ministry of Education of China (NCET-04-0503). We thank Prof. Guo Zejian (China Agricultural Univeristy, China) for donating PAL promoter as a gift and Prof. Guo Jianhua and Shao Ming (Nanjing Agricultural University, China) for providing bacteria strains. Dr. Mark Gijzen, Dr. Dinah Qutob and Dr. Katherine Dobinson, (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada) are especially acknowledged for critical reading of the manuscript. We appreciate Dr. Paul Tyler (University of Melbourne, Australia) for helpful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Pathology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Dong Suomeng, Zhang Zhengguang, Zheng Xiaobo & Wang Yuanchao

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  1. Dong Suomeng
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  2. Zhang Zhengguang
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  3. Zheng Xiaobo
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  4. Wang Yuanchao
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Correspondence to Wang Yuanchao.

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Communicated by H.S. Judelson.

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00299-011-1097-8.

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Suomeng, D., Zhengguang, Z., Xiaobo, Z. et al. Mammalian pro-apoptotic bax gene enhances tobacco resistance to pathogens. Plant Cell Rep 27, 1559–1569 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-008-0554-5

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