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Content archived on 2024-05-29

Analysis of the ORA47 transcription factor involved in jasmonic acid signal transduction in Arabidopsis thaliana

Objective

Plants defend themselves against stress, including pathogen or herbivore attack, via biosynthesis of protective secondary metabolites and defence proteins. Stress induces this response via a complex signal transduction network with jasmonic acid (JA) and r elated compounds as major players.

Stress induces JA biosynthesis via the so-called octadecanoid pathway. The genes encoding octadecanoid pathway enzymes are themselves induced by JA, indicating that JA initiates an autostimulatory loop. It is unknown how stress activates the octadecanoid pathway, how the produced JA is perceived, and how that leads to expression of JA biosynthesis genes and defence genes.

Knowledge about these processes will contribute to enhanced productivity of industrially and agronomic ally important plant species. The host group has identified the AP2-domain transcription factor ORA47, which regulates the JA-responsive expression of JA biosynthesis genes in Arabidopsis thaliana.

The protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide does not inhibit JA-induced JA biosynthesis gene expression, indicating that de novo synthesis of ORA47 protein is not necessary.

Therefore, JA activates pre-existing ORA47 protein, for example via a change in the posttranslational modification (e.g. phosphorylation) status, and/or via changes in the interaction with accessory regulatory proteins. ORA47 is the first terminal component of the JA signal transduction pathway characterized in Arabidopsis.

The main aim of this research proposal is to identify key proteins t hat interact with and/or activate ORA47 in a JA-responsive manner. Another aim is to study whether ORA47 is posttranslationally modified, and if so, whether JA affects the modification status.

One experimental approach uses a modified yeast two-hybrid system called Cytotrap system. Another approach uses transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing TAP-tagged ORA47 protein, to isolate proteins interacting with ORA47 via tag-guided co-purification.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

FP6-2004-MOBILITY-5
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

EIF - Marie Curie actions-Intra-European Fellowships

Coordinator

LEIDEN UNIVERSITY
EU contribution
No data
Total cost
No data