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First published online October 23, 2003; 10.1105/tpc.014894 American Society of Plant Biologists Knockout Analysis of Arabidopsis Transcription Factors TGA2, TGA5, and TGA6 Reveals Their Redundant and Essential Roles in Systemic Acquired Resistance
a Biotechnology Laboratory, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada 1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail yuelin{at}interchange.ubc.ca; fax 1-604-822-6089
Arabidopsis nonexpresser of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes (NPR1) is the sole positive regulator that has been shown to be essential for the induction of systemic acquired resistance. In npr1 mutant plants, salicylic acid (SA)mediated PR gene expression and pathogen resistance are abolished completely. NPR1 has been shown to interact with three closely related TGA transcription factorsTGA2, TGA5, and TGA6in yeast two-hybrid assays. To elucidate the biological functions of these three TGA transcription factors, we analyzed single and combined deletion knockout mutants of TGA2, TGA5, and TGA6 for SA-induced PR gene expression and pathogen resistance. Induction of PR gene expression and pathogen resistance by the SA analog 2,6-dichloroisonicotinic acid (INA) was blocked in tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 but not in tga6-1 or tga2-1 tga5-1 plants. Loss of INA-induced resistance to Peronospora parasitica Noco2 cosegregated with the tga6-1 mutation in progeny of multiple lines that were heterozygous for tga6-1 and homozygous for tga2-1 tga5-1 and could be complemented by genomic clones of wild-type TGA2 or TGA5, indicating that TGA2, TGA5, and TGA6 encode redundant and essential functions in the positive regulation of systemic acquired resistance. In addition, tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 plants had reduced tolerance to high levels of SA and accumulated higher basal levels of PR-1 under noninducing conditions, suggesting that these TGA factors also are important for SA tolerance and the negative regulation of the basal expression of PR-1.
Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is a general defense response that develops in the distal, uninfected parts of plants after local infection by an avirulent pathogen (Ryals et al., 1996
Several different genetic screens were conducted to identify regulatory genes downstream of SA. All 12 SA-nonresponsive mutants identified contain mutations in nonexpresser of PR genes (NPR1) (also known as NIM1 and SAI1) (Cao et al., 1994
Several groups have performed yeast two-hybrid screens using NPR1 as bait and found multiple TGA transcription factors that can interact with NPR1 (Zhang et al., 1999
Isolation of tga6-1 and Construction of the tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 Triple Mutant Using primers flanking TGA6 (At3g12250), we screened an Arabidopsis deletion mutant population by PCR and identified a deletion mutant for TGA6 named tga6-1. Sequence analysis of the deletion mutation revealed that a fragment of 2.7 kb between nucleotides 30,861 and 33,564 on BAC clone F28J15 was deleted (Figure 1). Sequence comparison between TGA6 cDNA and the genomic sequence revealed that the cDNA of TGA6 is transcribed from the region between nucleotides 30,249 and 33,651 of F28J15 and that the coding sequence is located between nucleotides 31,032 and 33,264. Thus, the deletion in tga6-1 occurred within TGA6 and removed the entire coding region. TGA2 (At5g06950) and TGA5 (At5g06960) are linked directly, and the distance between these two genes is <2 kb. We reported previously the identification of a mutant with both TGA2 and TGA5 deleted (Li et al., 2001
The TGA Triple Knockout Mutant Is More Sensitive to the Toxicity of SA Previously, npr1-1 plants were shown to be more sensitive to high concentrations of SA (Cao et al., 1997
Induction of PR-1 by INA Is Blocked in the TGA Triple Knockout Mutant In Arabidopsis, PR-1 is highly induced during SAR (Uknes et al., 1992 In wild-type plants, PR-1 was induced strongly by INA treatment. This induction was not affected by either tga6-1 or the tga2-1 tga5-1, because both tga6-1 and tga2-1 tga5-1 plants accumulated levels of PR-1 similar to that in wild-type plants after INA induction (Figure 3). By contrast, PR-1 was no longer induced by INA in the tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 triple knockout mutant, suggesting that SAR is compromised when all three TGA factors are mutated.
Interestingly, under noninducing conditions, the basal level of PR-1 was affected in the TGA knockout mutants. In tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 and tga2-1 tga5-1 plants, the expression level of PR-1 was 50-fold and 10-fold higher than that of wild-type plants, respectively (Figure 3). No significant change in the basal level of PR-1 was observed in tga6-1 plants.
SAR Is Abolished in TGA Triple Knockout Mutants
We further tested whether systemic resistance can be induced by an avirulent pathogen in tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 plants. As shown in Figure 5, Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato (P.s.t.) DC3000 carrying avrRpt2 induced systemic resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv maculicola (P.s.m.) ES4326 in wild-type plants but not in tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 plants, further suggesting that SAR is compromised in the TGA triple mutant.
Compromised SAR in tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 Cosegregates with tga6-1 As shown in Figure 1, the deletion in tga6-1 affected only TGA6. To determine whether the loss of INA-induced resistance in the TGA triple mutant cosegregated with the tga6-1 deletion, we analyzed four independent F2 lines that were heterozygous for the tga6-1 deletion but homozygous for the tga2-1 tga5-1 deletion. The F3 plants of these lines were analyzed for susceptibility to P. parasitica Noco2 after INA treatment. As shown in Table 1, in all four lines tested, approximately one-fourth of the progeny lost INA-induced resistance to P. parasitica Noco2. To determine whether the susceptible plants were homozygous at the tga6-1 locus, DNA from each individual susceptible plant was analyzed by PCR using primers within the TGA6 deletion. All susceptible plants were found to be homozygous for the tga6-1 deletion, indicating that the loss of INA-induced resistance cosegregated with the tga6-1 deletion.
Both TGA2 and TGA5 Can Restore INA-Induced PR Gene Expression and Pathogen Resistance in tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 Plants To determine whether TGA2 and TGA5 can complement the mutant phenotypes of tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1, we transformed tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 plants with genomic clones containing either TGA2 or TGA5. Three independent lines for each construct were used for phenotypic analysis. Because similar results were obtained from all lines, only results from one line for each construct is shown in Figure 6. INA-induced PR-1 expression was restored in the TGA triple mutant plants transformed with genomic DNA clones of TGA2 or TGA5 (Figure 6A). Treatment with INA also resulted in strong resistance to P. parasitica Noco2 in these transgenic plants (Figures 6C and 6D), indicating that SAR was restored in the triple mutant expressing either of the two TGA transcription factors. Furthermore, tolerance to SA was restored in tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 plants transformed with the genomic clone of TGA2 or TGA5 (Figure 6B).
Although TGA transcription factors have been suggested to be important regulators of SA signaling, it was unclear whether they are essential for the establishment of SAR. In previous studies, transgenic plants overexpressing dominant-negative forms of TGA2 or a tobacco TGA2 homolog were used to probe the functions of TGA transcription factors in Arabidopsis and tobacco (Niggeweg et al., 2000b Because dominant-negative mutants most likely affect multiple independent TGA factors to various degrees, it is difficult to determine the functions of individual TGA factors using this approach. Instead, we created knockout plants of TGA2, TGA5, and TGA6 and assayed the single and combined mutants for altered regulation of SA signaling. We found that both PR gene expression and pathogen resistance cannot be induced by INA or avirulent pathogens in the tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 triple knockout mutant, suggesting that these TGA transcription factors serve as essential positive regulators of SAR. We also showed that genomic clones containing either TGA2 or TGA5 can complement the loss of the SAR phenotype in the TGA triple mutant. Thus, either TGA2 or TGA5 is sufficient for INA-induced PR gene expression and pathogen resistance. Because the loss of the SAR phenotype cosegregated with the tga6-1 mutation and was observed only in the triple mutant but not in tga2-1 tga5-1, TGA6 also is sufficient for INA-induced PR gene expression and pathogen resistance. These data demonstrate that TGA2, TGA5, and TGA6 encode redundant functions in the induction of SAR.
Furthermore, we found that tga2-1 tga5-1 and tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 accumulated increased levels of PR-1 under noninducing conditions, suggesting that these TGA transcription factors repress the basal expression of PR-1. The higher basal level of PR-1 in the triple mutant, compared with the double mutant, suggests that TGA6 is partially responsible for the negative regulation of basal levels of PR-1. On the other hand, either TGA2 or TGA5 appeared to be sufficient to suppress the basal expression of PR-1, because transforming the genomic clone of either TGA2 or TGA5 into the triple mutant reverted PR-1 expression to the wild-type level. The increased PR-1 expression probably is the result of the loss of binding of TGA factors to a negative element on the PR-1 promoter. This hypothesis is supported by the presence of an as-1related TGACG element (LS5) that functions as a weak silencer in the PR-1 promoter (Lebel et al., 1998
In addition to the loss of SAR phenotypes, npr1 plants also exhibited reduced tolerance to high concentrations of SA and enhanced susceptibility to the bacterial pathogen P.s.m. ES4326. We found that tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 seedlings were very sensitive to SA toxicity, suggesting that these TGA transcription factors may work together with NPR1 to regulate tolerance to high levels of SA. Unlike npr1 plants, TGA triple knockout plants did not exhibit enhanced susceptibility to P.s.m. ES4326 (Figure 5). It is possible that the basal resistance to P.s.m. ES4326 is regulated by other mechanisms. In Arabidopsis, there are at least two other TGA transcription factors that can bind to NPR1 in the yeast two-hybrid system (Després et al., 2000
Generation of Triple Knockout Mutants for TGA2, TGA5, and TGA6 TGA2 and TGA5 are located next to each other, and the identification of tga2-1 tga5-1 was described previously (Li et al., 2001 9 kb. The PCR extension time was set at 1.5 min to avoid amplification of the wild-type DNA fragment. A single deletion mutant, tga6-1, was detected initially in one of the megapools containing 2592 lines. Individual mutant plants were isolated subsequently by deconvolution as described previously (Li et al., 2001
Analysis of PR Gene Expression in the Mutant Plants
Pathogen Infections
Infection with the virulent bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv maculicola (P.s.m.) ES4326 was performed by infiltrating leaves of 4-week-old soil-grown wild-type and mutant plants with a bacterial suspension at OD600 = 0.001, which is the dose that normally causes disease in wild-type plants. Symptoms were examined 3 days after inoculation. The bacterial titer in the leaves was measured according to a previously described procedure (Cao et al., 1994
Complementation of tga6-1 tga2-1 tga5-1 Plants by Wild-Type Genes Upon request, materials integral to the findings presented in this publication will be made available in a timely manner to all investigators on similar terms for noncommercial research purposes. To obtain materials, please contact Yuelin Zhang, yuelin{at}interchange.ubc.ca
Accession Number
We thank Brian Staskawicz for P.s.t. DC3000 avrRpt2 strain, Jian-min Zhou and Jane Parker for sending materials used in this study, and Sandra Goritschnig and Kristoffer Palma for careful reading of the manuscript. We are grateful for financial support to Y.Z. from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada and to X.L. from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada.
Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.014894. Received June 18, 2003; accepted September 6, 2003.
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