Increasing plant susceptibility to Agrobacterium infection by overexpression of the Arabidopsis nuclear protein VIP1.
Agrobacterium is a unique model system as well as a major biotechnological tool for genetic manipulation of plant cells. It is still unknown, however, whether host cellular factors exist that are limiting for infection, and whether their overexpression in plant cells can increase the efficiency of the infection. Here, we examined the effect of overexpression in tobacco plants of an Arabidopsis gene, VIP1, which encodes a recently discovered cellular protein required for Agrobacterium infection. Our results indicate that VIP1 is imported into the plant cell nucleus via the karyopherin alphadependent pathway and that elevated intracellular levels of VIP1 render the host plants significantly more susceptible to transient and stable genetic transformation by Agrobacterium, probably because of the increased nuclear import of the transferred-DNA.
Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5215, USA.
Tzvi
T
Tzfira
Manjusha
M
Vaidya
Vitaly
V
Citovsky
D017360:Arabidopsis; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D001692:Biological Transport; D015870:Gene Expression; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012231:Rhizobium / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000382:microbiology; D028901:alpha Karyopherins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C432104:VIP1 protein, Arabidopsis; D028901:alpha Karyopherins