Abstract
Metacaspase is discovered gene family with distant caspase homologs in protozoa, fungi, and plants. The Arabidopsis genome has nine metacaspase genes. Based on the presence or absence of an N-terminal domain, they can be divided into two types of metacaspase genes: type I (AtMC1 to 3) and type II (AtMC4 to 9). To examine the expression patterns of the Arabidopsis metacaspase gene family, we measured the levels of expression of the metacaspase genes in various tissues and during biotic stresses by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. As expected, the nine AtMC genes were expressed differently among tissues and during diverse stress conditions. In addition, to address the spatial expression of AtMC genes, their expression patterns using the promoter region of AtMCs (0.85 kb to 2.55 kb) were examined by the GUS reporter system. By observing GUS activity in transgenic plants containing nine AtMCpro::GUS constructs, we found that expression of these nine AtMC genes was regulated developmentally and spatially. We also observed that AtMC::green fluorescent fusion proteins were mainly localized in the nucleus using the Arabidopsis protoplast transient assay. In summary, our data suggest that AtMCs gene family be involved in various defense responses during biotic stresses.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bonneau L, Ge Y, Drury GE, Gallois P (2008) What happened to plant caspases? J Exp Bot 59:491–499
Breeze E, Harrison E, McHattie S, Hughes L, Hickman R, Hill C, Kiddle S, Kim YS, Penfold CA, Jenkins D, Zhang C, Morris K, Jenner C, Jackson S, Thomas B, Tabrett A, Legaie R, Moore JD, Wild DL, Ott S, Rand D, Beynon J, Denby K, Mead A, Buchanan-Wollaston V (2011) High-resolution temporal profiling of transcripts during Arabidopsis leaf senescence reveals a distinct chronology of processes and regulation. Plant Cell 23:873–894
Castillo-Olamendi L, Bravo-Garcia A, Moran J, Rocha-Sosa M, Porta H (2007) AtMCP1b, a chloroplast-localised metacaspase, is induced in vascular tissue after wounding or pathogen infection. Funct Plant Biology 34:1061–1071
Clough SJ, Bent AF (1998) Floral dip: a simplified method for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant J 16:735–743
Coll NS, Vercammen D, Smidler A, Clover C, Van Breusegem F, Dangl JL, Epple P (2010) Arabidopsis type I metacaspases control cell death. Science 330:1393–1397
Dietrich RA, Richberg MH, Schmidt R, Dean C, Dangl JL (1997) A novel zinc finger protein is encoded by the Arabidopsis LSD1 gene and functions as a negative regulator of plant cell death. Cell 88:685–694
He R, Drury GE, Rotari V, Gordon A, Willer M, Farzaneh T, Woltering EJ, Gallois P (2008) Metacaspase-8 modulates programmed cell death induced by ultraviolet light and H2O2 in arabidopsis. J Biol Chem 283:774–783
Hoeberichts FA, ten Have A, Woltering EJ (2003) A tomato metacaspase gene is upregulated during programmed cell death in Botrytis cinerea-infected leaves. Planta 217:517–522
Kim SM, Bae C, Oh SK, Choi D (2013) A pepper (Capsicum annuumL.) metacaspase 9 (Camc9) plays a role in pathogen-induced cell death in plants. Mol Plant Pathol 2013 Mar 25. doi: 10.1111/ mpp.12027. [Epub ahead of print]
Koonin EV, Aravind L (2002) Origin and evolution of eukaryotic apoptosis: the bacterial connection. Cell Death Differ 9:394–404
Kwon SI, Cho HJ, Bae K, Jung JH, Jin HC, Park OK (2009) Role of an Arabidopsis Rab GTPase RabG3b in pathogen response and leaf senescence. J Plant Biol 52:79–87
Lam E, Zhang Y (2012) Regulating the reapers: activating metacaspases for programmed cell death. Trends Plant Sci 17:487–494
Lord CEN, Gunawardena HLAN (2012) Programmed cell death in C.elegans, mammals, and plants. Eur J Cell Biol 91:603–613
Madeo F, Herker E, Maldener C, Wissing S, Lächelt S, Herlan M, Fehr M, Lauber K, Sigrist SJ, Wesselborg S, Fröhlich KU (2002) A caspase-related protease regulates apoptosis in yeast. Mol Cell 9:911–917
Oh IS, Park AR, Bae MS, Kwon SJ, Kim YS, Lee JE, Kang NY, Lee S, Cheong H, Park OK (2005) Secretome analysis reveals an Arabidopsis lipase involved in defense against Alternaria brassicicola. Plant Cell 17:2832–2847
Roberts IN, Caputo C, Criado MV, Funk C (2012) Senescenceassociated proteases in plants. Physiol Plant 145:130–139
Sanmartin M, Jaroszewski L, Raikhel NV, Rojo E (2005) Caspases. Regulating death since the origin of life. Plant Physiol 137:841–847
Tsiatsiani L, Breusegem FV, Gallois P, Zavialov A, Lam E, Bozhkov PV (2011) Metacaspases. Cell Death Differ 18:1279–1288
Uren AG, O’Rourke K, Aravind L, Pisabarro MT, Seshagiri S, Koonin EV, Dixit VM (2000) Identification of paracaspases and metacaspases: two ancient families of caspase-like proteins, one of which plays a key role in MALT lymphoma. Mol Cell 6:961–967
Vercammen D, van de Cotte B, De Jaeger G, Eeckhout D, Casteels P, Vandepoele K, Vandenberghe I, van Beeumen J, Inze D, van Breusegem F (2004) Type II metacaspases Atmc4 and Atmc9 of Arabidopsis thaliana cleave substrates after arginine and lysine. J Biol Chem 279:45329–45336
Vercammen D, Declercq W, Vandenabeele P, Van Breusegem F (2007) Are metacaspases caspases?. J Cell Biol 179:375–380
Wang X, Wang X, Feng H, Tang C, Bai P, Wei G, Huang L, Kang Z (2012) TaMCA4, a novel wheat metacaspase gene functions in programmed cell death induced by the fungal pathogen Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici. Mol Plant Microbe Interact 25:755–764
Watanabe N, Lam E (2004) Recent advance in the study of caspaselike proteases and Bax inhibitor-1 in plants: their possible roles as regulator of programmed cell death. Mol Plant Pathol 5:65–70
Watanabe N, Lam E (2005) Two Arabidopsis metacaspases AtMCP1b and AtMCP2b are arginine/lysine-specific cysteine proteases and activate apoptosis-like cell death in yeast. J Biol Chem 280:14691–14699
Watanabe N, Lam E (2006) Arabidopsis Bax inhibitor-1 functions as an attenuator of biotic and abiotic types of cell death. Plant J 45:884–894
Watanabe N, Lam E (2011) Arabidopsis metacaspases 2d is a positive mediator of cell death induced during biotic and abiotic stresses. Plant J 66:969–982
Yoo SD, Cho YH, Sheen J (2007) Arabidopsis mesophyll protoplast: a versatile cell system for transient gene expression analysis. Nat Protoc 2:1565–1572
Zimmermann P, Hirsch-Hoffmann M, Hennig L, Gruissem W (2004) GENEVESTIGATOR. Arabidopsis microarray database and analysis toolbox. Plant Physiol 136:2621–2632
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kwon, S.I., Hwang, D.J. Expression analysis of the metacaspase gene family in Arabidopsis . J. Plant Biol. 56, 391–398 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-013-0290-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-013-0290-4