Abstract
NPR1 is a gene of central importance in enabling plants to resist microbial attack. Therefore, knowledge of nearby genes is important for genome analysis and possibly for improving disease resistance. In this study, systematic DNA sequence analysis, gene annotation, and protein BLASTs were performed to determine genes near the NPR1 gene in Beta vulgaris L., Medicago truncatula Gaertn, and Populus trichocarpa Torr. & Gray, and to access predicted function. Microsynteny was discovered for NPR1 with genes CaMP, encoding a chloroplast-targeted signal calmodulin-binding protein, and CK1PK, a CK1-class protein kinase. Conserved microsynteny of NPR1, CaMP, and CK1PK in three diverse species of eudicots suggests maintenance during evolution by positive selection for close proximity. Perhaps close physical linkage contributes to coordinated expression of these particular genes that may control critically important processes including nuclear events and signal transduction.
Highlights
Research done on Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynth over a 10-year period in a number of laboratories has amassed considerable evidence that the NPR1 gene is of central importance in determining the plant ability to resist microbial attack [1]
Global plant defense responses to pathogen invasion are controlled by the NPR1 gene product and intracellular redox state, since an inactive dimeric NPR1 protein in the cytosol is reduced to the active monomer which migrates to the nucleus and activates expression of pathogen-induced “pathogenesis-related” (PR) genes [2]
Comparison of orthologous NPR1 gene regions of B. vulgaris, M. truncatula, and P. trichocarpa revealed for the first time conserved microsynteny of the defense-priming NPR1 gene with a calmodulin-binding protein (CaMP) gene, encoding a calmodulinbinding protein, and with a CK1PK gene, specifying a CK1class dual-specificity protein kinase
Summary
Research done on Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynth over a 10-year period in a number of laboratories has amassed considerable evidence that the NPR1 gene ( called NIM1) is of central importance in determining the plant ability to resist microbial attack [1]. The central role of NPR1 in positively activating defense mechanisms in response to biotic stress suggests the possibility of enhancing disease resistance in plants by genetic manipulation of the NPR1 gene. Knowledge of microsynteny of genes colinear with NPR1 in crop species could perhaps be used to devise innovative strategies for molecular genetic modification in order to improve disease resistance. SMART analysis of the predicted BvNPR1 gene product [9] showed a BTB/POZ domain and two ARDs, or ankyrin repeat domains [10], both being characteristic of NPR1 proteins and other transcriptional activators within the nucleus. NPR1 is responsible for disease resistance priming or “induced resistance,” a result of coordinated expression of multiple defense mechanisms/pathways to effectively resist microbial attack [11]
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