Plant Physiol. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Plant Physiology Preview
Published on January 24, 2008; 10.1104/pp.107.109553

OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE
This Article
Free via Open Access: OA
Right arrow Full Text (Plant Physiology Preview (PDF))
Right arrow Supplemental Data
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
146/3/940    most recent
pp.107.109553v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lin, C.
Right arrow Articles by Dooner, H. K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Lin, C.
Right arrow Articles by Dooner, H. K.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Lin, C.
Right arrow Articles by Dooner, H. K.

Received September 22, 2007
Accepted January 14, 2008

Characterization of the monoterpene synthase gene tps26, the ortholog of a gene induced by insect herbivory in maize

Changfa Lin , Binzhang Shen , Zhennan Xu , Tobias G. Kollner , Jorg Degenhardt , and Hugo K. Dooner *

Waksman Institute, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08855, USA; Dept. of Plant Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA; and Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knoll Strasse 8, Jena, D-07745, Germany

* Corresponding author; email: dooner{at}waksman.rutgers.edu.

Plants damaged by insects can synthesize and release volatile chemicals that attract natural enemies of the herbivore. The maize (Zea mays, ssp. mays) terpene synthase gene stc1 is part of that indirect defense response, being induced in seedling blades in response to herbivory by beet army worm (BAW). Many genes in maize are duplicated because of a past whole genome duplication event and several of these orthologs display different expression patterns. We report here the isolation and characterization of tps26 and confirm by homology and synteny criteria that it is the ortholog of stc1. Prior genetic analysis revealed that the stc1 function is not duplicated, raising the interesting question of how the two orthologs have become differentiated in their expression. tps26 encodes a 633-amino acid protein that is highly conserved with STC1. Like stc1, tps26 is induced by wounding, but in the roots and leaf sheath, instead of the blade, and not in response to BAW feeding. tps26 maps near a QTL for Southwestern corn borer (SWCB) resistance, making it a plausible candidate gene for that QTL. However, while possessing highly polymorphic tps26 alleles, the resistant and susceptible parents of the mapping population do not differ in levels of tps26 expression. Moreover, tps26 is not induced specifically by SWCB feeding. Therefore, although they share a wounding response, the stc1 and tps26 maize orthologs differ in their tissue specificity and their induction by insect herbivores. The N-termini of STC1 and TPS26 are predicted to encode plastid transit peptides; fusion proteins of GFP to either N terminus localized to the plastid, confirming that prediction. The mature proteins, but not the respective complete proteins, were active and synthesized a blend of monoterpenes, indicating that they are monoterpene synthases. A gene closely related to stc1/tps26 is found in the sorghum genome at a location that is not orthologous with stc1. The possible origin of stc1-like genes is discussed.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
ASPB Publications PLANT PHYSIOLOGY THE PLANT CELL
Copyright © 2008 by the American Society of Plant Biologists