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Promoter activation of pepper class II basic chitinase gene, CAChi2, and enhanced bacterial disease resistance and osmotic stress tolerance in the CAChi2-overexpressing Arabidopsis

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Abstract

The activation of the CAChi2 promoter as the result of bacterial infection and osmotic stresses was examined using the Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression assay. Several stress-related cis-acting elements were revealed within the upstream genomic sequence of the CAChi2 gene. In tobacco leaf tissues transiently transformed with the CAChi2 promoter-β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene, the CAChi2 promoter was up-regulated by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci infection. The CAChi2-GUS activation was closely related to osmotic stresses, including treatment with mannitol and NaCl. The −378 CAChi2 promoter was sufficient for the CAChi2 gene induction by salicylic acid treatment. CAChi2 overexpression in the transgenic Arabidopsis plants enhanced bacterial disease resistance against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato infection. CAChi2-overexpressing Arabidopsis plants also exhibited increased tolerance to NaCl-induced osmotic stresses during seed germination and seedling growth. CAChi2 overexpression induced the expression of the NaCl stress-responsive gene RD29A in the absence of NaCl stress. The CAChi2-overexpressing transgenic plants exhibited increased sensitivity to abscisic acid during seed germination.

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Abbreviations

GUS:

β-Glucouronidase

PR:

Pathogenesis-related

SA:

Salicylic acid

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant (301012–5) from the Agricultural R& D Promotion Center, the Korea Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, a grant (CG1432) from the Crop Functional Genomics Center of the 21st Century Frontier Research Program funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Korea and a grant from the Center for Plant Molecular Genetics and Breeding Research, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. We thank Dr. Stuart Timmis for critically reviewing of the manuscript.

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  1. Laboratory of Molecular Plant Pathology, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Korea University, Anam-dong, Sungbuk-ku, Seoul, 136-713, Korea

    Jeum Kyu Hong & Byung Kook Hwang

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  1. Jeum Kyu Hong
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Correspondence to Byung Kook Hwang.

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The nucleotide sequence data reported here has been deposited in the GenBank database under the accession number AY775335.

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Hong, J.K., Hwang, B.K. Promoter activation of pepper class II basic chitinase gene, CAChi2, and enhanced bacterial disease resistance and osmotic stress tolerance in the CAChi2-overexpressing Arabidopsis . Planta 223, 433–448 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-005-0099-6

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