Browsing by Person "Masroor, Ashir"

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    Effects of overexpression of NIMIN genes on salicylic acid-mediated PR-1 gene activation and phenotype in Nicotiana benthamiana (Domin)
    (2013) Masroor, Ashir; Pfitzner, Artur J. P.
    Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is a whole plant resistance mechanism, launched after initial exposure to a necrotizing pathogen. At molecular level, SAR is characterized by elevated level of plant hormone salicylic acid (SA) and induction of pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins. During SAR, SA signal is transduced through regulatory protein NPR1 (Non-Expressor of PR Genes1; also known as NIM1 or SAI1) leading to the induction of the SAR marker PR-1. Present data strongly suggest that the SA signal is directly perceived by NPR1. NPR1 interacts with two classes of proteins. DNA binding TGA factors link the SA sensor NPR1 to the as-1 like cis-acting elements present in the promoter region of PR-1 gene. In addition, NPR1 interacts with NIM1-interacting (NIMIN) proteins. In Arabidopsis, there are four NIMIN genes, i.e., NIMIN1, NIMIN1b, NIMIN2 and NIMIN3. Initially, it was hypothesized that, although structurally related to each other, NIMIN proteins might play diverse functions during SAR response. Indeed, it has been shown that the NIMIN genes are expressed differentially and that the encoded proteins interact differentially with NPR1. Based on these observations, NIMIN proteins have gained much attention. The functional significance of NIMIN proteins in SAR pathway has been addressed in overexpression studies. Overexpression of NIMIN1 yielded strong suppression of PR gene induction and enhanced susceptibility to a bacterial pathogen in transgenic Arabidopsis. Apart from NIMIN1, the functional significance of other Arabidopsis NIMIN family members has not yet been addressed. Therefore, present research is conducted to explore the biological significance of other NIMIN family members from Arabidopsis as well as tobacco. To this end, transient gene expression in a N. benthamiana reporter line containing a -1533PR-1apro:GUS construct was employed. The research achievements of this work are listed below. 1. The N. benthamiana infiltration procedure was optimized for reliable determination of -1533PR-1apro:GUS reporter gene activation in presence of different Agrobacterium strains. 2. After optimization, transient gene expression system (TGES) was successfully used to uncover the functional significance of NIMIN proteins on SA-mediated PR-1a gene induction. NIMIN1 and NIMIN1b are categorized as strong, NIMIN3 as an intermediate and NIMIN2 as a non-suppressor of SA-mediated PR-1a reporter gene activation. 3. Interestingly, suppressing NIMIN1, NIMIN1b and NIMIN3 all contain an EDF (glutamic acid, aspartatic acid, phenylalanine) motif. Therefore, EDF mutants were generated in NIMIN1 and NIMIN3, i.e., NIMIN1 E94A D95V and NIMIN3 E63A D64V, respectively. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) data show that NIMIN1 E94A D95V still interacts with NPR1, while NIMIN3 E63A D64V interaction with NPR1 could not be validated due to undetectable accumulation of the mutant fusion protein in yeast. In the TGES, NIMIN1 E94A D95V and NIMIN3 E63A D64V were not able to suppress the SA-mediated PR-1a promoter activation. The data support the fact that the EDF motif may have a function in NIMIN proteins interaction with NPR1, thereby, regulating PR-1 gene induction. 4. EAR domain is generally considered as a repression domain and also exists in NIMIN proteins. The deletion mutants, i.e., NIMIN1 1/137 and NIMIN1b 1/135 still suppress the SA-induced -1533PR-1apro:GUS gene activation. On the other hand, NIMIN1 L138A L140A and NIMIN3 L108A L110A do not suppress the SA-mediated reporter gene induction. But that is because of low overall accumulation of mutant proteins in N. benthamiana leaf tissues. Thus, the data support the view that EAR domain is not the only repressional domain active in NIMIN proteins. 5. Like Arabidopsis, tobacco also contains NIMIN genes. During this study, a novel NIMIN gene from tobacco, NIMIN-like1, was cloned and characterized. Using Y2H analyses, it was shown that NIMIN-like1 binds to NgNPR1 and that interaction is sensitive to SA. Thus, NIMIN-like1 falls into the tobacco NIMIN family. Thereafter, functional significance of diverse tobacco NIMIN proteins for their effects on SA-mediated PR-1a gene induction via TGES was carried out. NIMIN2c and NIMIN-like1 are categorized as strong suppressors, whereas NIMIN2a is a weak suppressor of SA-mediated PR-1a reporter gene induction. 6. NIMIN1 and NIMIN3 overexpression manifests cell death in N. benthamiana, and cell death is accompanied by the accumulation of H2O2. No correlation was found between NIMIN proteins binding intensity to NPR1 and cell death. Similarly, no correlation was found between PR-1a reporter gene suppression and cell death. The data support the view that the EDF and EAR motifs are not involved in cell death phenomenon. Based on previous and data gathered in this study, a model for the hypothetical play of sequential interaction of NIMIN proteins with NPR1 in course of SAR is presented.