Oligopeptide Elicitor-Mediated Defense Gene Activation in Cultured Parsley Cells

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 92; no. 10; pp. 4150 - 4157
• Main Authors: Hahlbrock, Klaus, Scheel, Dierk, Logemann, Elke, Nürnberger, Thorsten, Parniske, Martin, Reinold, Susanne, Sacks, Wendy R., Schmelzer, Elmon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 09.05.1995; National Acad Sciences; National Academy of Sciences
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Base Sequence; Biochemistry; Biological Transport; Cell culture techniques; Cell walls; Cells, Cultured; Cultured cells; Enzymes; Flowers & plants; Fungal Proteins - chemistry; Fungal Proteins - physiology; Fungi; Gene activation; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes; Infections; Ions; Magnoliopsida - genetics; Magnoliopsida - physiology; Membrane Glycoproteins - chemistry; Membrane Glycoproteins - physiology; Messenger RNA; Molecular Sequence Data; Parsley; Petroselinum crispum; Plant cells; Plant Diseases; Plant Leaves; Protein Conformation; Signal Transduction; Space life sciences; TATA Box; Transcriptional Activation
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.92.10.4150

We have used suspension-cultured parsley cells (Petroselinum crispum) and an oligopeptide elicitor derived from a surface glycoprotein of the phytopathogenic fungus Phytophthora megasperma f.sp. glycinea to study the signaling pathway from elicitor recognition to defense gene activation. Immediately after specific binding of the elicitor by a receptor in the plasma membrane, large and transient increases in several inorganic ion fluxes (Ca2+, H+, K+, Cl-) and H2O2formation are the first detectable plant cell responses. These are rapidly followed by transient changes in the phosphorylation status of various proteins and by the activation of numerous defense-related genes, concomitant with the inactivation of several other, non-defense-related genes. A great diversity of cis-acting elements and trans-acting factors appears to be involved in elicitor-mediated gene regulation, similar to the apparently complex nature of the signal transduced intracellularly. With few exceptions, all individual defense responses analyzed in fungus-infected parsley leaves have been found to be closely mimicked in elicitor-treated, cultured parsley cells, thus validating the use of the elicitor/cell culture system as a valuable model system for these types of study.