Transcriptional Down-Regulation by Abscisic Acid of Pathogenesis-Related -1,3-Glucanase Genes in Tobacco Cell Cultures¹

Enea Rezzonico, Nathalie Flury², Frederick Meins Jr.^*, and Roland Beffa

Friedrich Miescher Institute, P.O. Box 2543, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland (R.B., E.R., N.F., F.M.); and Institute of Biology and Plant Physiology, Biology Building, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland (R.B., E.R.)

Class I isoforms of -1,3-glucanases (GLU I) and chitinases (CHN I) are antifungal, vacuolar proteins implicated in plant defense. Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) GLU I and CHN I usually exhibit tightly coordinated developmental, hormonal, and pathogenesis-related regulation. Both enzymes are induced in cultured cells and tissues of cultivar Havana 425 tobacco by ethylene and are down-regulated by combinations of the growth hormones auxin and cytokinin. We report a novel pattern of GLU I and CHN I regulation in cultivar Havana 425 tobacco pith-cell suspensions and cultured leaf explants. Abscisic acid (ABA) at a concentration of 10 µM markedly inhibited the induction of GLU I but not of CHN I. RNA-blot hybridization and immunoblot analysis showed that only class I isoforms of GLU and CHN are induced in cell culture and that ABA inhibits steady-state GLU I mRNA accumulation. Comparable inhibition of -glucuronidase expression by ABA was observed for cells transformed with a tobacco GLU I gene promoter/-glucuronidase reporter gene fusion. Taken together, the results strongly suggest that ABA down-regulates transcription of GLU I genes. This raises the possibility that some of the ABA effects on plant-defense responses might involve GLU I.

Plant Physiol. (1998) 117: 585-592
Copyright Clearance Center:   0032-0889/98/117/0585/08
© 1998 American Society of Plant Physiologists

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