The first intron of EIJ1 confers a specific response to wounding and herbivore stresses.

Abstract

Plants are constantly exposed to different kinds of biotic stress, such as herbivore attack and wounding. To deal with these stresses, plants have evolved sophisticated defence mechanisms to protect themselves. Previously, we found that EIJ1 (EDS1-interacting J protein 1) plays a negative regulatory role in plant disease resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Follow-up studies revealed that EIJ1 specifically responds to wounding and herbivore stresses. The expression of EIJ1 was specifically induced by wounding or herbivore stress, as demonstrated by similar results in EIJ1 protein assay. Interestingly, GUS staining found that the promoter of EIJ1 is not involved in the induction of expression under wounding stress. Instead, we identified the first intron of EIJ1 as a key factor in response to wounding stress. Deleting the first intron of EIJ1 resulted in a loss of response to wounding stress in plants. Our results broaden the role of EIJ1 in plant resistance to biotic stress and provide new insights into plant responses to biotic stress.