Publikationen - Molekulare Signalverarbeitung

Oxylipins including jasmonates are signaling compounds in plant growth, development, and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) most mutants affected in jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis and signaling are male sterile, whereas the JA-insensitive tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) mutant jai1 is female sterile. The diminished seed formation in jai1 together with the ovule-specific accumulation of the JA biosynthesis enzyme allene oxide cyclase (AOC), which correlates with elevated levels of JAs, suggest a role of oxylipins in tomato flower/seed development. Here, we show that 35S::SlAOC-RNAi lines with strongly reduced AOC in ovules exhibited reduced seed set similarly to the jai1 plants. Investigation of embryo development of wild-type tomato plants showed preferential occurrence of AOC promoter activity and AOC protein accumulation in the developing seed coat and the embryo, whereas 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid (OPDA) was the dominant oxylipin occurring nearly exclusively in the seed coat tissues. The OPDA- and JA-deficient mutant spr2 was delayed in embryo development and showed an increased programmed cell death in the developing seed coat and endosperm. In contrast, the mutant acx1a, which accumulates preferentially OPDA and residual amount of JA, developed embryos similar to the wild type, suggesting a role of OPDA in embryo development. Activity of the residual amount of JA in the acx1a mutant is highly improbable since the known reproductive phenotype of the JA-insensitive mutant jai1 could be rescued by wound-induced formation of OPDA. These data suggest a role of OPDA or an OPDA-related compound for proper embryo development possibly by regulating carbohydrate supply and detoxification.

We studied the genetic variability of three genomic regions (p23, p25 and p27 genes) from 11 field Citrus tristeza virus isolates from the two main citrus growing areas of Argentina, a country where the most efficient vector of the virus, Toxoptera citricida, is present for decades. The pathogenicity of the isolates was determinated by biological indexing, single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis showed that most isolates contained high intra-isolate variability. Divergent sequence variants were detected in some isolates, suggesting re-infections of the field plants. Phylogenetic analysis of the predominant sequence variants of each isolate revealed similar grouping of isolates for genes p25 and p27. The analysis of p23 showed two groups contained the severe isolates. Our results showed a high intra-isolate sequence variability suggesting that re-infections could contribute to the observed variability and that the host can play an important role in the selection of the sequence variants present in these isolates.

Plants respond to mechanical wounding or herbivore attack with a complex scenario of sequential, antagonistic or synergistic action of different signals leading to defense gene expression. Tomato plants were used as a model system since the peptide systemin and the lipid-derived jasmonic acid (JA) were recognized as essential signals in wound-induced gene expression. In this review recent data are discussed with emphasis on wound-signaling in tomato. The following aspects are covered: (i) systemin signaling, (ii) JA biosynthesis and action, (iii) orchestration of various signals such as JA, H2O2, NO, and salicylate, (iv) local and systemic response, and (v) amplification in wound signaling. The common occurrence of JA biosynthesis and systemin generation in the vascular bundles suggest JA as the systemic signal. Grafting experiments with JA-deficient, JA-insensitive and systemin-insensitive mutants strongly support this assumption.

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Citrus psorosis virus (CPsV), the type member of genus Ophiovirus, has three genomic RNAs. Complete sequencing of CPsV RNA 1 revealed a size of 8184 nucleotides and Northern blot hybridization with chain specific probes showed that its non-coding strand is preferentially encapsidated. The complementary strand of RNA 1 contains two open reading frames (ORFs) separated by a 109-nt intergenic region, one located near the 5′-end potentially encoding a 24K protein of unknown function, and another of 280K containing the core polymerase motifs characteristic of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRp). Comparison of the core RdRp motifs of negative-stranded RNA viruses, supports grouping CPsV, Ranunculus white mottle virus (RWMV) and Mirafiori lettuce virus (MiLV) within the same genus (Ophiovirus), constituting a monophyletic group separated from all other negative-stranded RNA viruses. Furthermore, RNAs 1 of MiLV, CPsV and RWMV are similar in size and those of MiLV and CPsV also in genomic organization and sequence.

The allene oxide cyclase (AOC) is a plastid-located enzyme in the biosynthesis of the signaling compound jasmonic acid (JA). In tomato, AOC occurs specifically in ovules and vascular bundles [Hause et al. (2000)PlantJ. 24; 113]. Immunocytological analysis of longitudinal sections of petioles and flower stalks revealed the occurrence of AOC in companion cells (CC) and sieve elements (SE). Electron microscopic analysis led to the conclusion that the AOC-containing structures of SE are plastids. AOC was not detected in SE of 35S::AOCantisense plants. The enzymes preceding AOC in JA biosynthesis, the allene oxide synthase (AOS) and the lipoxygenase, were also detected in SE. In situ hybridization showed that the SE are free of AOC-mRNA suggesting AOC protein traffic from CC to SE via plasmodesmata. A control by in situ hybridization of AOS mRNA coding for a protein with a size above the exclusion limit of plasmodesmata indicated mRNA in CC and SE. The data suggest that SE carry the capacity to form 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid, the unique precursor of JA. Together with preferential generation of JA in vascular bundles [Stenzel et al. (2003)Plant J. 33: 577], the data support a role of JA in systemic wound signaling.

Citrus tristeza closterovirus (CTV), is a phloem-limited virus transmitted by aphids in a semipersistent manner. The genome of CTV is composed of a ssRNA with two capsid proteins: CP, covering about 95% of the particle length, and a diverged coat protein (dCP), present only in one end of the particle, forming a rattlesnake structure. dCP is the product of p27 gene for which it is also postulated a function in the transmissibility by aphid vectors. Hybridization analysis showed a p27 gene region, which exhibits different patterns with two probes derived from two biological distinct CTV isolates. In an attempt to screen whether that gene region differs in mild and severe strains, six CTV isolates belonging to different biogroups were compared for variations in their p27 gene by analysis of single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP). The p27 gene was reverse transcribed and amplified by PCR and thirty clones of each isolate were obtained. From each clone, two fragments of the gene were amplified by PCR: fragment (a), 459 bp long, and fragment (b), 281 bp long. Sequence variations in both gene fragments were studied by SSCP analysis. A variety of SSCP patterns was obtained from each isolate, being isolates belonging to the groups II-IV and III those with the higher and lower number of them. Moreover, SSCP analysis provided a rapid procedure to screen the genetic heterogeneity of the viral isolates reducing considerably the amount of nucleic acid sequenciation necessary to gain that knowledge.