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Plant Physiol. (1998) 117: 1393-1400
Molecular Characterization of an Arabidopsis Gene Encoding
Hydroperoxide Lyase, a Cytochrome P-450 That Is
Wound
Inducible1
Nicholas J. Bate2, 3, *,
Sobhana Sivasankar2,
Claire Moxon,
John M.C. Riley,
John E. Thompson, and
Steven J. Rothstein
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of Guelph,
Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 (N.J.B., S.S., C.M., S.J.R.); and Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario,
Canada N2L 3G1 (J.M.C.R., J.E.T.)
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ABSTRACT |
Hydroperoxide
lyase (HPL) cleaves lipid hydroperoxides to produce volatile flavor
molecules and also potential signal molecules. We have characterized a
gene from Arabidopsis that is homologous to a recently cloned HPL from
green pepper (Capsicum annuum). The deduced protein
sequence indicates that this gene encodes a cytochrome P-450 with a
structure similar to that of allene oxide synthase. The gene was cloned
into an expression vector and expressed in Escherichia
coli to demonstrate HPL activity. Significant HPL activity was
evident when
13S-hydroperoxy-9(Z),11(E),15(Z)-octadecatrienoic acid was used as the substrate, whereas activity with
13S-hydroperoxy-9(Z),11(E)-octadecadienoic acid was approximately 10-fold lower. Analysis of headspace volatiles by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, after addition of the substrate to E. coli extracts expressing the protein,
confirmed enzyme-activity data, since cis-3-hexenal was
produced by the enzymatic activity of the encoded protein, whereas
hexanal production was limited. Molecular characterization of this gene
indicates that it is expressed at high levels in floral
tissue and is wound inducible but, unlike allene oxide synthase, it is
not induced by treatment with methyl jasmonate.
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INTRODUCTION |
In green plant tissue HPL cleaves C18-lipid hydroperoxides to form
a C6-aldehyde and a 12-carbon oxoacid (Hatanaka, 1993 ). The C12 product
of HPL leads to the formation of traumatin, which is implicated in
wound signaling (Zimmerman and Coudron, 1979 ). The C6-aldehyde products
of the HPL reaction depend on the substrate; cis-3-hexenal
is formed from HPOT and hexanal is formed from HPOD. The lipid
hydroperoxide substrates were generated from C18 free fatty acids by
the enzymatic activity of lipoxygenase (see Fig. 1). HPL activity has been found in a
variety of plants and is thought to be associated with the chloroplast
envelope (Blée and Joyard, 1996), developmentally regulated (Vick
and Zimmerman, 1976 ; Gardner et al., 1991 ; Riley et al., 1996 ),
and discernible as two distinct activities in tea leaves (Matsui et
al., 1991 ).

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| Figure 1.
Biochemical pathway illustrating the enzymatic
activity of HPL. HPL cleaves either HPOT (A) or HPOD (B), forming
12-oxo-trans-10-dodecenoic acid and
cis-3-hexenal or hexanal, respectively. An isomerization
factor (IF) interconverts cis-3-hexenal to
trans-2-hexenal in vivo.
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Although the central lipoxygenase pathway is present in animal
systems, and the formation of prostaglandins and leukotrienes in
animals is analogous to the formation of jasmonates in plant tissue
(Anderson, 1989 ), there is no pathway in animals analogous to the HPL
branch pathway. The C6 compounds produced by HPL are released rapidly
from disrupted plant tissue and form the basis for the "green note"
flavor characteristic of plant tissue. The green note flavor is an
important determinant of fresh fruit and vegetable quality, and C6
volatiles are widely used as a prepared food additive (Hatanaka, 1993 ).
C6 volatiles produced from this pathway also have antimicrobial
properties, suggesting that they may play a protective role in plant
defense (Croft et al., 1993 ). They may also have an application as
antimicrobial fumigants in postharvest storage (Archbold et al., 1997 ).
In addition, C6 volatiles of the HPL pathway induce phytoalexin
accumulation (Zeringue, 1992 ) and inhibit seed germination (Gardner et
al., 1990 ), suggesting that they may also play a signaling role in
plants.
The role that HPL plays in flavor formation as well as in plant defense
indicates that this enzyme is an important biotechnology target. In
this paper we present the biochemical and molecular characterization of
an Arabidopsis clone that, when expressed in Escherichia
coli, yields a product possessing HPL activity.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
HPL Characterization and Sequencing
Using the BLASTX algorithm (Altschul et al., 1990 ), we found an
EST clone (EST designation 94J16T7) that has a high degree of
homology with the published HPL sequence for bell pepper
(Capsicum annuum) (Matsui et al., 1996 ). Because there is
variability in the length of the N-terminal transit peptide of
chloroplast-targeted proteins, we used 5 RACE to ensure that a
full-length sequence was obtained. 5 RACE was performed as described
by Goring et al. (1992) . Total RNA isolated from leaf tissue was tailed
at the 5 end with terminal transferase and dATP. An adapter primer (adapter-dT17) and a gene-specific primer
(5 -AGA-TGG-CTA-AAA-GAC-TTG-ACG-TCA-AGA-3 ) were used for the first set
of PCR reactions. PCR reaction products were separated on an agarose
gel, and plugs were taken from the gel in the expected size range
(300-400 bp). A second round of PCR reactions was performed using the
agarose plugs as a source of template, an adapter primer (Goring et
al., 1992 ), and a second gene-specific primer
(5 TGA-CGT-CAA-GAA-CGG-CGA-CGA-TGT-3 ). After gel purification, PCR
products of the expected size were cloned into pGEM-T (Promega
Biotech). Four of the 5 RACE clones from two different sources of RNA
had identical sequences, but varied slightly in length. The sequence of
the longest 5 RACE product is presented.
Expression of Fusion Proteins in Escherichia coli
To demonstrate HPL activity, a fusion protein was produced in
E. coli using the pGEX system (Pharmacia). Preliminary
experiments demonstrated that the full-length clone had no HPL
activity, and so the putative transit peptide was removed using a PCR
strategy. An oligonucleotide was designed
(5 -TCA-CAG-CTT-CCC-CTC-CGT-ACA-ATG-3 ) so that the corresponding HPL
protein sequence started at amino acid 30 (Ser). A PCR reaction product
was obtained using this primer and one located downstream of an
internal DraII site (5 -CGC-AGA-GGA-AAC-TGA-AGA-TGC-AAC-3 , corresponding to nucleotides 650-672) that was cloned into pGEM-T and
sequenced. This clone was digested with a pGEM-T polylinker restriction
enzyme (PstI) and DraII, and the fragment was
purified and ligated to the remainder of the full-length HPL
insert cut at the polylinker PstI site and the internal
DraII site, effectively replacing the 5 end of the gene
with the truncated version. This truncated and reassembled clone was
fused in-frame to the GST moiety of the expression plasmid pGEX-5X-2
(Pharmacia). The protocols used for protein expression and purification
were as specified by the manufacturer. Control protein consisted of the
GST protein expressed and purified in the same manner. Protein quantity
was determined by the method of Bradford (1976) .
Growth Conditions, Wounding, and Treatment with MeJA
Arabidopsis (ecotype Columbia) was soil grown in
controlled-environment growth chambers with a 16-h/8-h day/night
regime. Temperature was maintained at 23°C for both cycles. After
approximately 3 weeks of growth, Arabidopsis plants were treated with
MeJA or wounded, and RNA was isolated by the guanidinium isothiocyanate procedure (Ausubel et al., 1987 ). MeJA treatment consisted of placing
the potted Arabidopsis plants into a sealable 1-L canning jar for
24 h to allow for acclimation before treatment with either 10 µL
of methanol (negative control) or 10 µL of 0.1 M MeJA
(97% purity; Firmenich, Geneva, Switzerland). Three samples
were collected: 4 h of exposure to methanol, 4 h of exposure
to MeJA, and 24 h of exposure to MeJA. After treatments,
plants were removed and leaf tissue was extracted for RNA. For
wound induction, leaves of 4-week-old plants were sliced with a razor
blade five times across the mid-vein and placed in a high-humidity
growth chamber for 15, 30, or 60 min before wounded leaf tissue was
removed for RNA extraction.
Quantification of Transcript Levels by Northern-Blot Analysis and
RT-PCR
Total RNA was isolated by the guanidinium isothiocyanate method
(Ausubel et al., 1987 ). For northern-blot analysis, equal quantities of
total RNA (10 µg) were separated on a formaldehyde denaturing gel,
transferred to nylon membranes, and hybridized with radiolabeled
gene-specific probes according to the method of Church and Gilbert
(1984) .
RT-PCR was used to detect mRNA quantity for HPL, AOS, and the
constitutive control -ATPase after wounding and MeJA treatments. Ten
micrograms of total RNA was treated with DNase I (GIBCO-BRL) according
to the manufacturer's instructions, and first-strand cDNA was
synthesized using Moloney murine leukemia virus RT (GIBCO-BRL) and 0.1 unit of random hexanucleotides (Pharmacia Biotech) according to the
method of Ausubel et al. (1987) . After the RT reaction and heat
inactivation of Moloney murine leukemia virus RT, one-tenth of the
reaction was used for PCR amplification using gene-specific primers for
Arabidopsis HPL, AOS, and -ATPase. Primers for PCR were chosen so
that genomic DNA amplification products would include an intron,
thus allowing a distinction between DNA and cDNA
amplification products based on size. Arabidopsis HPL
gene-specific primers were
5 -GCT-CAA-AAG-ATG-TTG-TTG-AGA-ACG-3 and
5 -CGC-AGA-GGA-AAC-TGA-AGA-TGC-AAC-3 , corresponding to
nucleotides 54 to 77 and 648 to 672 of the Arabidopsis HPL sequence,
respectively. A 302-bp AOS fragment was amplified using the primers
5 -CTT-TTC-ACC-GGT-ACT-TAC-ATG-CCG-3 and
5 -GAG-CTT-GTA-TCT-GCG-GGA-TTC-GTC-3 , corresponding to bases 447 to
470 and 723 to 746, respectively (Laudert et al., 1996 ).
-ATPase gene-specific primers were designed based on conserved
regions of the tobacco sequence (Boutry and Chua, 1985 ) and an
Arabidopsis partial EST sequence (G3 h9T7). The upstream primer was
5 -TGC-TCG-TGC-CCG-TGT-TGG-ACT-3 and the downstream primer was
5 -CTT-TCT-GCA-CAC-CAC-GAG-CAG-3 , corresponding to nucleotides 2798 to
2806 and 3409 to 3430 of the published tobacco sequence (Boutry and
Chua, 1985 ), respectively. Reactions were run through a thermal cycler
(model 9600, Perkin-Elmer) for 20 cycles (40 s at 94°C, 40 s at
55°C, and 40 s at 72°C). PCR amplification conditions were
optimized for linearity of template quantity. To detect PCR products,
10% of the reaction volume was separated on a 1.2% agarose gel and
transferred to a nylon membrane in 0.4 N NaOH. Blots were
prehybridized, hybridized with radiolabeled probe, and washed according
to the method of Church and Gilbert (1984) . Hybridization and washes
were performed at 65°C.
HPL Enzyme Assay and Volatile Measurements
HPL activities of the crude bacterial lysate, affinity-purified
GST-94J16 fusion protein, and pure GST protein were determined spectrophotometrically using the coupled-enzyme assay described by Vick
(1991) , which measures the oxidation of reduced nicotinamide adenine
dinucleotide. The activity is expressed as the decrease in
A340 min 1
mg 1 protein.
Volatile emissions from samples were analyzed and quantified by GC-MS
after purge trapping. Equimolar concentrations of HPOT or HPOD in 5-mL
reaction volumes were incubated with 40 g of affinity-purified fusion protein or GST for 15 min. After this period the reaction was
stopped by placing the samples on ice, and the volatiles
produced were contained in the solution by the addition of 5 mL of
saturated calcium chloride. The entire mixture was then added to the
purge vessel of a Dynatherm thermal stripper (model 1000, Supelco,
Inc., Bellefonte, PA), which was preheated for 5 min at 50°C before being purged with nitrogen for 10 min at a flow rate of 120 mL min 1. The volatiles emitted were entrained on a
Carbotrap 100 thermal desorption tube (Supelco) and released by
heating to 300°C for 5 min in a Dynatherm model 860 thermal
desorption unit (model 860, Supelco), and individual compounds were
separated and identified using a gas chromatograph (model 5890, Hewlett-Packard) fitted with a mass selective detector (model 5970, Hewlett-Packard). A Supelco wax 10 capillary column (30 m × 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25-mm film thickness) was used for volatile
separation, and the internal mass spectra library of the detector,
together with authentic external standards, were used to identify
resolved peaks of interest.
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
Gene Isolation and Sequence Analysis
A partial sequence from the Arabidopsis EST database
had significant homology to an HPL isolated from bell pepper, and the corresponding clone (94J16) was sequenced in its entirety. To ensure
that the full-length clone was obtained, 5 RACE was used to gain
additional sequence upstream from where the EST sequence ended. Several
RACE products were sequenced and, although they differed slightly in
length, they all had the same sequence upstream from the 5 end of the
EST (Fig. 2). In the RACE sequences, an in-frame stop codon was present at nucleotides 51 to 53 upstream of an
AUG codon (nucleotides 63-65), suggesting that this AUG is the start
codon. Significant homology between bell pepper HPL and this clone
began at residue 31 (Leu-31), suggesting that the protein sequence
before Leu-31 functions as a transit peptide for chloroplast targeting.
The deduced protein sequence up to Ser-29 has structural features of a
chloroplast transit peptide, including an enrichment of Ser and the
absence of Asp, Glu, and Tyr residues (Von Heijne et al., 1989 ). The
structure of this putative transit peptide is similar to those
for proteins previously demonstrated to be targeted to the chloroplast
envelope (K. Ko, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada,
personal communication). Thus, the structural features of the deduced
transit peptide sequence are consistent with enzyme-activity data,
which localize HPL to the chloroplast envelope (Blée and Joyard,
1996).

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| Figure 2.
Nucleotide and deduced protein sequence of
Arabidopsis HPL. The arrowhead denotes the start of the sequence used
in protein-expression studies. Cyt P-450 domains A to D have lines
above the protein sequence. An internal EcoRI site is
boxed.
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At the C terminus of the protein, there are four domains characteristic
of Cyt P-450. Figure 3A compares the Cyt
P-450 domains of the 94J16 clone with related sequences, including
green pepper HPL (CA-HPL; Matsui et al., 1996 ), Arabidopsis AOS
(AT-AOS; Laudert et al., 1996 ), flax AOS (FX-AOS, Song et al., 1993 ),
and rubber particle protein (RP-AOS, Pan et al., 1995 ). There is a
striking homology between these sequences relative to other plant Cyt
P-450 proteins, suggesting that they are related enzymes. The homology in the Cyt-P-450 domains is greatest between the 94J16 clone and bell
pepper HPL, however, and there are two conserved residues in the AOS
protein sequences that are replaced by nonconservative residues in the
HPL sequences. Specifically, in domain D, Val and Arg are present in
all of the AOS-related sequences, but are replaced by Thr-342 and
Ser-346 in the aligned HPL sequences. Sequence information from
additional HPL genes will determine if these are conserved residues
that are diagnostic for HPL. HPL may exist as a small gene family in
Arabidopsis, since Southern-blot analysis at moderate stringency
(50°C hybridization temperature) using the 5 end of the 94J16
sequence (up to the EcoRI site) revealed a weak
hybridization signal in addition to the primary signal from the 94J16
probe (data not shown).

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| Figure 3.
Protein-sequence comparison between Arabidopsis
HPL (94J16) and related proteins. A, Comparison of the four Cyt P-450
domains (A-D) of Arabidopsis HPL (94J16) with those of green pepper
HPL (CA-HPL), as well as those of AOS from Arabidopsis (AT-AOS), flax
(FX-AOS), and rubber plant (RP-AOS). Asterisks in Cyt P-450 domain D
denote residues conserved in HPL sequences that are dissimilar from
corresponding residues in published AOS sequences. B, Structural
comparison of the full-length sequences of 94J16, green pepper HPL
(CA-HPL), and Arabidopsis AOS (AT-AOS). The figure divides the protein
sequence into three regions: TP, putative transit peptide; N-Term,
N-terminal region; and P-450, Cyt P-450 region, indicating the four Cyt
P-450 domains (A-D). Percentage figures above the individual regions
indicate the degree of similarity at the protein level between 94J16
and CA-HPL or AT-AOS.
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There is significant homology between the 94J16 clone and AOS from
Arabidopsis and other species throughout the protein sequence. Indeed,
this clone has been identified as AOS in unpublished reports (Creelman
and Mullet, 1997 ; European Union sequencing project, accession
no. Z97339) and was first assumed by us to be another member of the AOS
gene family in Arabidopsis. It is not surprising that HPL and AOS would
have a similar protein structure, since they use the same substrate and
are both associated with the chloroplast. However, close examination of
the sequence revealed that the homology between 94J16 and Arabidopsis
AOS was lower than is commonly seen for gene family members. For
example, the similarity in amino acid sequence between 94J16 and
Arabidopsis AOS was only 57% in the P-450 domains (Fig. 3B). This,
coupled with the greater similarity of 94J16 to a recently published
green pepper HPL sequence (Matsui et al., 1996 ), led us to explore the
properties of this gene and its encoded protein more closely.
To determine if this clone encoded HPL, we produced the protein in
E. coli and assayed for HPL enzyme activity and the
production of the C6-aldehyde product. Because preliminary results
indicated that the full-length protein had minimal activity, we removed the putative transit peptide in an attempt to increase specific activity, as has been demonstrated for other P-450 enzymes, including Arabidopsis AOS (Laudert et al., 1996 ). The pGEX prokaryotic protein expression system was used to produce the protein in E. coli
as a N-terminal fusion with GST. Figure 4
shows that a full-length, soluble fusion protein of the expected size
is produced in large quantity. A number of protein bands are detected
by SDS-PAGE and Coomassie blue staining that are smaller than the
full-length fusion protein, however (Fig. 4, lane 3), presumably as a
result of protein degradation during purification or premature
termination of translation.

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| Figure 4.
SDS-PAGE analysis of fusion proteins produced in
E. coli. Protein Mr marker
(lane 1), purified GST (lane 2), and purified GST-94J16 fusion protein
(lane 3) were run on a 12.5% polyacrylamide gel and the bands
visualized by staining with Coomassie blue. The arrow indicates the
full-length GST-94J16 fusion protein.
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HPL enzyme activity was demonstrated using a coupled-enzyme assay
(Riley et al., 1996 ) modified from Vick (1991) . Crude bacterial lysate
containing the protein produced from 94J16 and affinity-purified protein were compared with a negative control consisting of equivalent quantities of GST protein. Table I
demonstrates that this clone clearly possesses HPL enzyme activity.
Activity for the 94J16 protein was very high when HPOT was used as the
substrate in both the crude extract and purified protein, whereas
activity was considerably lower (approximately 10-fold) when HPOD was
used as the substrate. This suggests that the HPL encoded by 94J16 had
some selectivity for a substrate. Matsui et al. (1991) purified two HPL
enzyme fractions and biochemically characterized one fraction with
approximately 10-fold higher activity for the HPOT substrate. Likewise,
in soybean there appear to be tissue-specific HPL isozymes with
differing affinities for 9- or 13-lipid hydroperoxides (Gardner
et al., 1991 ). In Arabidopsis green leaf tissue, both hexanal (the
product of HPOD cleavage) and the hexenals (the product of HPOT
cleavage) are present (Avdiushko et al., 1995 ), indicating that HPOD
and HPOT cleavage activity are present. These results collectively suggest that the 94J16 gene product accounts for the majority of the
HPOT-cleaving activity and that another isozyme of HPL activity exists
to account for HPOD cleavage. The existence of a related sequence, as
shown by a second hybridizing signal in Southern blots under moderate
stringency (see above), suggests that in Arabidopsis, two gene products
account for total HPL activity.
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Table I.
HPL activity of E. coli extracts containing GST
protein or GST-94J16 fusion protein
Substrate (either HPOD or HPOT) was added to E. coli lysate
or affinity-purified eluate after induction of GST protein alone or a
GST-94J16 fusion protein. HPL enzyme activity was measured as the rate
of decrease in A340 (detection limit 0.004 unit
min 1) in a coupled enzyme assay (Vick, 1991 ).
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To establish C6-aldehyde production from the 94J16 gene product, we
measured headspace volatiles produced from E. coli extracts containing either GST alone or the truncated 94J16 fusion protein in
the presence of HPOT or HPOD substrate. Figure
5 demonstrates that in the presence of
HPOD, the 94J16 bacterial extract produced only marginally more hexanal
than the GST control. The presence of hexanal in the headspace of the
GST control extracts indicated that there was some spontaneous cleavage
of HPOD into the C6-aldehyde. The production of small quantities of
hexanal was in keeping with the enzyme-activity data (Table I). In the
presence of HPOT, a substantial peak was present at a retention time of
6.77 min in the total ion count chromatogram for the 94J16 bacterial
extract that was not detectable in the corresponding chromatogram for the GST control extract (Fig. 5). This peak was identified as trans-2-hexenal by co-chromatography with commercial
standards, as well as by MS. The immediate C6-aldehyde
product of HPL activity with HPOT is thought to be
cis-3-hexenal, which was subsequently isomerized in vivo to
produce the trans-isomer. We have found, however, that with
our methods of GC-MS analysis the cis-3-isomer is
artificially isomerized to trans-2-hexenal during thermal
desorption (J.M.C. Riley and J.E. Thompson, unpublished
results). Levels of trans-2-hexenal produced by the 94J16
gene product from HPOT were approximately 12-fold higher than the
levels of hexanal produced from HPOD (Table
II), and the ratio of
trans-2-hexenal:hexanal formation was in approximate
agreement with the 10-fold-higher activity of the 94J16 gene product
measured using the coupled-enzyme assay with HPOT relative to HPOD as
the substrate (Table I).

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| Figure 5.
Total ion-count chromatogram of volatile
compounds from the headspace of E. coli extracts
containing GST protein alone (A and B) or 94J16 as a GST fusion protein
(C and D). In A and C, HPOD was used as the substrate, and in B and D,
HPOT was used as the substrate.
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Table II.
C6-volatile production from E. coli extracts
expressing either a GST protein or a GST-94J16 fusion protein
Headspace volatiles were measured by GC after the addition of HPOD or
HPOT substrate to affinity-purified protein eluate. Quantity of C6
volatiles was measured relative to known quantities of standard
compounds.
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Molecular Characterization of Arabidopsis HPL
Northern-blot analysis was used to characterize the
tissue-specific expression patterns for this gene in
Arabidopsis. Figure 6A
indicates that HPL had a defined pattern of gene expression. HPL was
expressed at relatively high levels in mature inflorescence, at
slightly lower levels in green silique and root tissue, and at
substantially lower levels in green leaf tissue. This pattern of gene
expression is somewhat surprising, given that HPL activity is
associated with the production of "green-leaf" volatiles (Hatanaka, 1993 ). However, HPL cleavage products are present in significant quantities in most floral tissues (Loughrin et al., 1990 ; Knudsen et
al., 1993 ), suggesting that they may be an important component of the
collective floral scent. Similarly, Kamm and Buttery (1984) demonstrated that diseased roots of red clover contain
significant quantities of hexanol and
trans-2-hexenal, indicating that this tissue is also capable
of producing C6 volatiles, which is in keeping with HPL gene expression
in the root.

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| Figure 6.
Analysis of HPL gene-expression patterns by
northern-blot and RT-PCR analysis. A, Northern-blot analysis of HPL
mRNA accumulation in different tissues of Arabidopsis, including
inflorescence, green silique, mature leaf, and root tissue. Total RNA
was extracted from each tissue and 10 µg was separated on a
formaldehyde gel before blotting onto nylon membrane and hybridization
with a 94J16 (HPL) gene-specific probe. B, RT-PCR analysis of HPL, AOS,
and -ATPase expression after wounding of leaf tissue for 15, 30, or
60 min. Total RNA was extracted from intact or wounded tissue, treated
with DNase, and subjected to a RT reaction with random hexanucleotide
primers. Equal quantities of the RT products were PCR amplified for 20 cycles with gene-specific oligonucleotides corresponding to each gene.
An aliquot of the PCR product was separated on an agarose gel, blotted,
and hybridized with probes specific for each gene. C, RT-PCR analysis
of HPL, AOS, and -ATPase expression after exposure to MeJA for 4 or
24 h. RT-PCR conditions were as in B.
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To characterize the expression of HPL in response to wounding and MeJA
treatment we used RT-PCR, since we found message abundance to be too
low in leaf tissue for definitive characterization by northern-blot
analysis. Northern blots were also complicated by the presence of a
second signal, slightly shorter than the predominant signal, that
hybridized to the 94J16 probe, even under high-stringency conditions.
Thus, to further ensure gene specificity, RT-PCR was used to provide a
quantitative assessment of message levels. Preliminary optimization
experiments found that by lowering the number of PCR cycles the
reaction was quantitative (data not shown). A portion of the PCR
reaction was separated by agarose-gel electrophoresis, blotted, and
hybridized with gene-specific probes for 94J16, AT-AOS, or -ATPase.
Release of C6 volatiles is associated with damaged plant tissue, so we
quantified 94J16 mRNA levels after wounding to determine if the gene is
wound induced. AT-AOS is wound inducible (Laudert et al., 1996 ), so
mRNA levels for this gene were also included to serve as a positive
control for wounding conditions. Figure 6B demonstrates that 94J16 mRNA
quantity increases within 30 min after wounding, suggesting that
transcription of this gene is stimulated in response to wounding. AOS
mRNA also accumulated after wounding, as has been demonstrated
previously (Laudert et al., 1996 ), but the constitutive control
-ATPase was unaffected by wound treatment. Wound induction of HPL is
interesting in light of the fact that the C12 product of HPL gives rise
to traumatin, a compound implicated in a signaling role during wounding
(Zimmerman and Coudron, 1979 ). Recently, we demonstrated that C6
volatiles also signal a variety of defense-related genes in Arabidopsis (N.J. Bate and S.J. Rothstein, unpublished results), and C6 volatiles have also been shown to stimulate phytoalexin production in cotton (Zeringue, 1992 ). Thus, it appears that the wound-induced
expression of HPL in tissue surrounding the wound site may result in
the production of signal molecules to activate specific defense
responses.
MeJA is a compound thought to play a role in the activation of
defense-related genes in response to wounding (Anderson, 1989 ; Creelman
and Mullet, 1997 ). Treatment of Arabidopsis plants in sealed containers
with 10 µM MeJA did not stimulate 94J16 mRNA levels over
a 24-h period (Fig. 6C), whereas AOS mRNA was induced within 4 h.
The mRNA levels were reduced somewhat in the -ATPase control after
4 h, but by 24 h the levels had returned to untreated control
levels. Avdiushko et al. (1995) reported that treatment with MeJA
induced HPL enzyme activity and hexanal and trans-2-hexenal production, suggesting that if there are two HPL isozymes both are
induced. However, much higher levels of MeJA were used by Avdiushko et
al. (1995) than were used in this study (approximately 175-fold
higher), and their findings indicated that Arabidopsis requires
5000-fold higher concentrations of MeJA treatment to achieve the same
induction relative to cucumber (Avdiushko et al., 1995 ). It is possible
that higher concentrations of MeJA may induce 94J16 or other HPL genes
in Arabidopsis, but because the expression of a range of genes is
induced by similar concentrations in a variety of species (Franceschi
and Grimes, 1991 ; Farmer et al., 1992 ; Bolter, 1993 ; Benedetti et al.,
1995 ), we conclude that, in a comparative sense, 94J16 is not
responsive to MeJA.
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FOOTNOTES |
1
This work was supported by the Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
2
These authors contributed equally to this
publication.
3
Present address: Molecular Genetics Section,
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 107 Science Place, Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, Canada S7N 0X2.
*
Corresponding author; e-mail baten{at}em.agr.ca; fax
1-306-956-7247.
Received February 3, 1998;
accepted May 8, 1998.
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ABBREVIATIONS |
Abbreviations:
AOS, allene oxide synthase.
EST, expressed
sequence tag.
GST, glutathione S-transferase.
HPL, hydroperoxide lyase.
HPOD, 13S-hydroperoxy-9(Z),11(E)-octadecadienoic
acid.
HPOT, 13S-hydroperoxy-9(Z),11(E),15(Z)-octadecatrienoic
acid.
MeJA, methyl jasmonate.
RACE, rapid amplification of cDNA ends.
RT, reverse transcriptase.
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