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Tomato Root Transformation Followed by Inoculation with Ralstonia Solanacearum for Straightforward Genetic Analysis of Bacterial Wilt Disease
Published on: March 11, 2020
Tomato stress-responsive factor TSRF1 interacts with ethylene responsive element GCC box and regulates pathogen
Hongbo Zhang1, Dabing Zhang, Jia Chen
1The National Plant Gene Research Center (Beijing), Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
Abstract:
Ethylene responsive factors (ERFs) are important in regulating plant pathogen resistance, abiotic stress tolerance and plant development. Recent studies have greatly enlarged the ERF protein family and revealed more important roles of ERFs in plants. Here, we report our finding of a tomato ERF protein TSRF1, which is transcriptionally up-regulated by ethylene, salicylic acid, or Ralstonia solanacearum strain BJ1057 infection. Biochemical analysis indicates that TSRF1 specifically interacts in vitro with the GCC box, an element present in the promoters of many pathogenesis-related (PR) genes. Further investigation evidences that TSRF1 activates in vivo the expression of reporter beta-glucuronidase gene controlled by GCC box. More importantly, overexpressing TSRF1 in tobacco and tomato constitutively activates the expression of PR genes, and subsequently enhancing transgenic plant resistance to the bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum strain BJ1057. Therefore our investigation not only extends the functions of ERF proteins in plant resistance to R. solanacearum, but also provides further clues to understanding the mechanism of host regulatory proteins in response to the infection of pathogens.
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