August
2006
, Volume
19
, Number
8
Pages
931
-
936
Authors
Simone
Ferrari
,
Roberta
Galletti
,
Donatella
Vairo
,
Felice
Cervone
,
and
Giulia
De Lorenzo
Affiliations
Università degli Studi “La Sapienza”, Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy
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RelatedArticle
Accepted 31 March 2006.
Abstract
Polygalacturonases (PGs) hydrolyze the homogalacturonan of plant cell-wall pectin and are important virulence factors of several phytopathogenic fungi. In response to abiotic and biotic stress, plants accumulate PG-inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) that reduce the activity of fungal PGs. In Arabidopsis thaliana, PGIPs with comparable activity against BcPG1, an important pathogenicity factor of the necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea, are encoded by two genes, AtPGIP1 and AtPGIP2. Both genes are induced by fungal infection through different signaling pathways. We show here that transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing an antisense AtPGIP1 gene have reduced AtPGIP1 inhibitory activity and are more susceptible to B. cinerea infection. These results indicate that PGIP contributes to basal resistance to this pathogen and strongly support the vision that this protein plays a role in Arabidopsis innate immunity.
JnArticleKeywords
Additional keyword:
pectic enzymes
.
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ArticleCopyright
© 2006 The American Phytopathological Society