Functional analysis reveals pleiotropic effects of rice RING-H2 finger protein gene OsBIRF1 on regulation of growth and defense responses against abiotic and biotic stresses

Abstract

RING finger proteins comprise a large family and play key roles in regulating growth/developmental processes, hormone signaling and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. A rice gene, OsBIRF1, encoding a putative RING-H2 finger protein, was cloned and identified. OsBIRF1 encodes a 396 amino acid protein belonging to the ATL family characterized by a conserved RING-H2 finger domain (C-X2-C-X15-C-X1-H-X2-H-X2-C-X10-C-X2-C), a transmembrane domain at the N-terminal, a basic amino acid rich region and a characteristic GLD region. Expression of OsBIRF1 was up-regulated in rice seedlings after treatment with benzothaidiazole, salicylic acid, l-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid and jasmonic acid, and was induced differentially in incompatible but not compatible interactions between rice and Magnaporthe grisea, the causal agent of blast disease. Transgenic tobacco plants that constitutively express OsBIRF1 exhibit enhanced disease resistance against tobacco mosaic virus and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci and elevated expression levels of defense-related genes, e.g. PR-1, PR-2, PR-3 and PR-5. The OsBIRF1-overexpressing transgenic tobacco plants show increased oxidative stress tolerance to exogenous treatment with methyl viologen and H2O2, and up-regulate expression of oxidative stress-related genes. Reduced ABA sensitivity in root elongation and increased drought tolerance in seed germination were also observed in OsBIRF1 transgenic tobacco plants. Furthermore, the transgenic tobacco plants show longer roots and higher plant heights as compared with the wild-type plants, suggesting that overexpression of OsBIRF1 promote plant growth. These results demonstrate that OsBIRF1 has pleiotropic effects on growth and defense response against multiple abiotic and biotic stresses.

The Pepper E3 Ubiquitin Ligase RING1 Gene,CaRING1, Is Required for Cell Death and the Salicylic Acid-Dependent Defense Response

“…9). Similar to our findings, enhanced resistance to TMV and P. syringae pv tabaci infection has recently been demonstrated in tobacco plants overexpressing the E3 ubiquitin ligase OsBIRF1 (Liu et al, 2008).…”

“…In plants, various physiological and biochemical pathways are regulated by ubiquitinmediated degradation of specific target proteins in response to biotic and abiotic stresses (Kwon et al, 2006;Dreher and Callis, 2007). To date, RING domains have been identified in several defense-related proteins induced by pathogen infection Stone and Callis, 2007;Liu et al, 2008). The E3 ubiquitin ligase activity of RING-type proteins can be predicted by in silico analysis of amino acid sequences (Stone et al, 2005).…”

Submergence Confers Immunity Mediated by the WRKY22 Transcription Factor in Arabidopsis

“…N-terminal kinase subdomains, enhances drought tolerance (Chini et al, 2004). In addition, many TFs mediate responses for both disease defense and abiotic stresses (Guo et al, 2004;Cao et al, 2006;Sohn et al, 2006;Zhang et al, 2007;Liu et al, 2008;Seo et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2009). A recent review discussed the central roles of some WRKY TFs in mediating both abiotic and biotic stresses from the point of view of systems biology (Friedel et al, 2012).…”

Isolation of Potato StACRE Gene and Its Function in Resistance against Bacterial Wilt Disease

“…4). [20,23], 담배의 Avr9/Cf-9 rapidly elicited 132 (NtACRE132) 유전자가 신호전달을 조절하여 병 저항성에 관 여 한다는 보고 [3], 벼의 EL5와 OsBIRF1 유전자가 생물학적 스트레스에 대해 병 방어 반응에 중요한 역할을 한다는 보고 [14] …”