Gene Activation by Cytoplasmic Acidification in Suspension-Cultured Rice Cells in Response to the Potent Elicitor, N-Acetylchitoheptaose

Abstract

N-Acetylchitoheptaose strongly induces a set of defense reactions in suspension-cultured rice cells including cytoplasmic acidification (K. Kuchitsu, Y. Yazaki, K. Sakano, and N. Shibuya, Plant Cell Physiol. 38:1012-1018, 1997) and the accumulation of mRNAs for two rapidly activated genes, EL2 and EL3 (E. Minami, K. Kuchitsu, D.-Y. He, H. Kouchi, N. Midoh, Y. Ohtsuki, and N. Shibuya, Plant Cell Physiol. 37:563-567, 1996), as well as phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase. Treatment of cells with propionic acid resulted in the accumulation of the mRNAs for EL2, EL3, and PAL in a manner similar to the accumulation induced by N-acetylchitoheptaose. Concomitantly, there was a rapid decrease in the cytoplasmic pH as detected with in vivo 31P-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Interestingly, K-252a, a potent inhibitor of Ser/Thr protein kinases, strongly inhibited gene induction by N-acetylchitoheptaose, but showed much less inhibition of gene induction caused by propionic acid. Calyculin A, a protein phosphatase inhibitor, induced mRNA accumulations for EL2, EL3 and PAL, with concomitant acidification of the cytoplasm. On the other hand, chitinase and β-glucanase mRNA levels did not change after addition of propionic acid or calyculin A. Treatment of the cells with propionic acid did not induce the production of reactive oxygen species. These results strongly suggest that cytoplasmic acidification at the early stage of elicitor action could be a key step in the signal transduction events leading to the expression of elicitor-responsive genes. A hypothetical model of elicitor signal pathway is proposed based on these results.

Activation of Phospholipase D Induced by Hydrogen Peroxide in Suspension-cultured Rice Cells

“…N-acetylchitooligosaccharide (D.P. > 6) elicitor induces various defense responses in suspension-cultured rice cells (Yamada et al 1993, Kuchitsu et al 1997, He et al 1998, Shibuya and Minami 2001, including the generation of ROS and phytoalexin accumulation (Yamada et al 1993, Kuchitsu et al 1995, Yamaguchi et al 2003. In this study, we show that these two responses are closely connected with each other.…”

The Gα Protein Controls a pH-Dependent Signal Path to the Induction of Phytoalexin Biosynthesis in Eschscholzia californica

“…On the other hand, an inducing effect of acidic shifts of the cytoplasmic pH was reported earlier for some pathogenesisrelated enzymes, including well-known examples from the early biosynthesis of phytoalexins as Phe ammonia lyase and hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase (i.e., the initial enzymes of phenylpropane or terpenoid metabolism, respectively) (He et al, 1998;Lapous et al, 1998). In these cases, the extra protons enter the cell from outside as indicated by the simultaneous alkalinization of the medium.…”

Novel Plant-specific Cyclin-dependent Kinase Inhibitors Induced by Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

“…7, A and B), suggesting that induction of Orysa;EL2 by cold and drought occurred in an ABA-independent manner. Orysa;EL2 was also up-regulated by propionic acid that triggers cytoplasmic acidification, a downstream effect in N-acetylchitoheptaose elicitation (41).…”