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PLANTS INTERACTING WITH OTHER ORGANISMS

AtERF14, a Member of the ERF Family of Transcription Factors, Plays a Nonredundant Role in Plant Defense^{1,[C],[W],[OA]}

CSIRO Plant Industry, Floreat, Western Australia 6913, Australia (L.O.S., J.P.A., J.Y., K.B.S.); and Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150, Australia (J.Y.)

We had previously shown that several transcription factors of the ethylene (ET) response factor (ERF) family were induced with different but overlapping kinetics following challenge of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) with Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato DC3000 (avrRpt2). One of these genes, a transcriptional activator, AtERF14, was induced at the same time as ERF-target genes (ChiB, basic chitinase). To unravel the potential function of AtERF14 in regulating the plant defense response, we have analyzed gain- and loss-of-function mutants. We show here that AtERF14 has a prominent role in the plant defense response, since overexpression of AtERF14 had dramatic effects on both plant phenotype and defense gene expression and AtERF14 loss-of-function mutants showed impaired induction of defense genes following exogenous ET treatment and increased susceptibility to Fusarium oxysporum. Moreover, the expression of other ERF genes involved in defense and ET/jasmonic acid responses, such as ERF1 and AtERF2, depends on AtERF14 expression. A number of ERFs have been shown to function in the defense response through overexpression. However, the effect of loss of AtERF14 function on defense gene expression, pathogen resistance, and regulation of the expression of other ERF genes is unique thus far. These results suggest a unique role for AtERF14 in regulating the plant defense response.

² These authors contributed equally to the paper.

³ Present address: Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas, ETSI Agrónomos, Dpto. Biotecnología-UPM, Avda. Complutense s/n., 28040 Madrid, Spain.

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: Karam B. Singh (karam.singh{at}csiro.au).

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

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

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www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.106.086637

^* Corresponding author; e-mail karam.singh{at}csiro.au; fax 61–(08)–9387–8991.

Received July 12, 2006; accepted November 12, 2006; published November 17, 2006.

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