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PLANTS INTERACTING WITH OTHER ORGANISMS

Involvement of the Pepper Antimicrobial Protein CaAMP1 Gene in Broad Spectrum Disease Resistance^1,[C],[OA]

Laboratory of Molecular Plant Pathology, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul 136–713, Republic of Korea

Pathogen-inducible antimicrobial defense-related proteins have emerged as key antibiotic peptides and enzymes involved in disease resistance in plants. A novel antimicrobial protein gene, CaAMP1 (for Capsicum annuum ANTIMICROBIAL PROTEIN1), was isolated from pepper (C. annuum) leaves infected with Xanthomonas campestris pv vesicatoria. Expression of the CaAMP1 gene was strongly induced in pepper leaves not only during pathogen infection but also after exposure to abiotic elicitors. The purified recombinant CaAMP1 protein possessed broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against phytopathogenic bacteria and fungi. CaAMP1:smGFP fusion protein was localized mainly in the external and intercellular regions of onion (Allium cepa) epidermal cells. The virus-induced gene silencing technique and gain-of-function transgenic plants were used to determine the CaAMP1 gene function in plant defense. Silencing of CaAMP1 led to enhanced susceptibility to X. campestris pv vesicatoria and Colletotrichum coccodes infection, accompanied by reduced PATHOGENESIS-RELATED (PR) gene expression. In contrast, overexpression of CaAMP1 in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) conferred broad-spectrum resistance to the hemibiotrophic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato, the biotrophic oomycete Hyaloperonospora parasitica, and the fungal necrotrophic pathogens Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. matthiolae and Alternaria brassicicola. CaAMP1 overexpression induced the salicylic acid pathway-dependent genes PR1 and PR5 but not the jasmonic acid-dependent defense gene PDF1.2 during P. syringae pv tomato infection. Together, these results suggest that the antimicrobial CaAMP1 protein is involved in broad-spectrum resistance to bacterial and fungal pathogen infection.

² Present address: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Byung Kook Hwang (bkhwang{at}korea.ac.kr).

^[C] Some figures in this article are displayed in color online but in black and white in the print edition.

^[OA] Open Access articles can be viewed online without a subscription.

www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.108.123836

^* Corresponding author; e-mail bkhwang{at}korea.ac.kr.

Received June 1, 2008; accepted July 27, 2008; published August 1, 2008.