title: Isolation of a novel Ser/Thr protein kinase gene from oligochitosan-induced tobacco and its role in resistance against tobacco mosaic virus.
abstract: Oligochitosan induces defense responses to pathogenic microbes in a wide variety of plants by acting as an elicitor. In the present study, mRNA differential display was used to investigate oligochitosan-induced transcriptional activation of defense-related genes. Accordingly, a novel Ser/Thr protein kinase gene was isolated and designated as oligochitosan-induced protein kinase (oipk). Molecular cloning showed that oipk contains six introns interrupted by seven exons. The open reading frame (ORF) of the gene is 1848 bp, which encodes a putative protein of 615 amino acids with the predicted molecular mass of 70.96 kDa and a pI of 6.32. A plant oipk antisense expression vector was constructed and transformed into tobacco by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Decreased phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL, EC 4.3.1.5) activity and decreased resistance to tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) were observed in transgenic tobacco. RT-PCR analysis revealed that oipk was expressed at high levels after oligochitosan induction in wild-type tobacco, but not in transgenic tobacco. These results indicated that oipk is involved in the signal pathway of oligochitosan-induced resistance in tobacco.
authors.affiliation: Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, 116023 Dalian, China. binfeng70@hotmail.com
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002686:Chitin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology; D048271:Chitosan; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009844:Oligosaccharides; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000821:virology; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology*; D014027:Tobacco Mosaic Virus / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D009844:Oligosaccharides; C493484:oligochitosan; D002686:Chitin; D048271:Chitosan; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases