Functional Analysis of Tomato Pti4 in Arabidopsis

• Published in: Plant physiology (Bethesda) 2002-01, Vol.128 (1), p.30-37
• Main Authors: Wu, Keqiang, Lining Tian, Jamie Hollingworth, Daniel C. W. Brown, Brian Miki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Arabidopsis - drug effects; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - growth & development; Arabidopsis thaliana; Biological and medical sciences; Caulimovirus; Chemical agents; Development and Hormone Action; DNA; DNA, Complementary - genetics; DNA-Binding Proteins - genetics; DNA-Binding Proteins - physiology; Economic plant physiology; Ethylenes - pharmacology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene expression; Gene expression regulation; Genes; Growth and development; Growth regulators; Lycopersicon esculentum; Lycopersicon esculentum - genetics; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; Mutation; Phenotype; Plant cells; Plant Growth Regulators - pharmacology; Plant physiology and development; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant Proteins - physiology; Plants; Plants, Genetically Modified; Plasmids; Protein Kinases - metabolism; Pseudomonas syringae; Pti4 gene; Reporter genes; Seedlings; Tomatoes; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transcription Factors - physiology; Transcription. Transcription factor. Splicing. Rna processing; Transgenic plants; Vegetative apparatus, growth and morphogenesis. Senescence
• ISSN: 0032-0889; 1532-2548
• DOI: 10.1104/pp.010696

Pti4 is a tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) transcription factor that belongs to the ERF (ethylene-responsive element binding factor) family of proteins. It interacts with the Pto kinase in tomato, which confers resistance to the Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato pathogen that causes bacterial speck disease. To study the function of Pti4, transgenic Arabidopsis plants were generated that expressed tomato Pti4 driven by the strong constitutive promoters, cauliflower mosaic virus 35S and tCUP. Global gene expression analysis by Affimetric GeneChip indicated that expression of Pti4 in transgenic Arabidopsis plants induced the expression of GCC box-containing PR genes. We also demonstrated that Pti4 enhanced GCC box-mediated transcription of a reporter gene. The data suggests that tomato Pti4 could act as a transcriptional activator to regulate expression of GCC box-containing genes. Furthermore, we show that the expression of tomato Pti4 in transgenic Arabidopsis plants produced a phenotype similar to that seen in plants treated with ethylene, thus providing evidence that the Pti4 gene is involved in the regulation of a subset of ethylene-responsive genes containing the GCC box.