August
2002
, Volume
15
, Number
8
Pages
764
-
773
Authors
Mang-jye
Ger
,
1
Cheng-hsien
Chen
,
2
Shaw-yhi
Hwang
,
2
Hsiang-en
Huang
,
3
Appa Rao
Podile
,
2
,
4
Badri Venkata
Dayakar
,
2
and
Teng-yung
Feng
1
,
2
Affiliations
1Graduate Institute of Life Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China; 2Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 115, Taiwan, Republic of China; 3Institute of Pathology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 115, Taiwan, Republic of China; 4Department of Plant Science, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad-500 046, India
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RelatedArticle
Accepted 8 April 2002.
Abstract
Hypersensitive response-assisting protein (HRAP) has been previously reported as an amphipathic plant protein isolated from sweet pepper that intensifies the harpinPss-mediated hypersensitive response (HR). The hrap gene has no appreciable similarity to any other known sequences, and its activity can be rapidly induced by incompatible pathogen infection. To assess the function of the hrap gene in plant disease resistance, the CaMV 35S promoter was used to express sweet pepper hrap in transgenic tobacco. Compared with wild-type tobacco, transgenic tobacco plants exhibit more sensitivity to harpinPss and show resistance to virulent pathogens (Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci and Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora). This disease resistance of transgenic tobacco does not originate from a constitutive HR, because endogenous level of salicylic acid and hsr203J mRNA showed similarities in transgenic and wild-type tobacco under noninfected conditions. However, following a virulent pathogen infection in hrap transgenic tobacco, hsr203J was rapidly induced and a micro-HR necrosis was visualized by trypan blue staining in the infiltration area. Consequently, we suggest that the disease resistance of transgenic plants may result from the induction of a HR by a virulent pathogen infection.
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© 2002 The American Phytopathological Society