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Heterologous expression of the Brassica rapa transcription factor BrWRKY7 enhances resistance against bacterial soft rot caused by Pectobacterium carotovorum in Arabidopsis

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Abstract

Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis) is one of the most widely consumed vegetables cultivated worldwide, including Republic of Korea, and can be seriously damaged by bacterial soft rot disease, leading to major crop loss during storage and cultivation. The necrotrophic bacterium Pectobacterium carotovorum ssp. carotovorum (Pcc) causes bacterial soft rot. In this study, we show that Brassica WRKY7 (BrWRKY7) transcription factor was induced by Pcc infection, and we analyzed its function during Pcc infection in Arabidopsis thaliana by generating the transgenic plants in which BrWRKY7 was heterologously expressed. Upon infection by Pcc of transgenic Arabidopsis plants constitutively overexpressing BrWRKY7, bacterial growth was inhibited and disease symptoms were significantly reduced compared to wild type, indicating that BrWRKY7 may play a role in defense responses to Pcc in Arabidopsis. Moreover, a defense marker gene, PDF1.2, was highly induced in BrWRKY7 overexpression transgenic plants, implying that BrWRKY7 is involved in the jasmonic acid (JA)-related defense pathway. The YFP-BrWRKY7 protein was exclusively localized in the nucleus in Arabidopsis protoplasts. These results demonstrate that pathogen-induced BrWRKY7 enhances disease resistance to Pcc in Arabidopsis, and works effectively as a positive transcription factor for the expression of defense-related genes. The discovery of the interesting gene BrWRKY7, isolated from Brassica rapa, which is able to activate defense responses to Pcc infection, may help to develop pathogen-resistant crops using this application.

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Abbreviations

BrWRKY7 :

Brassica rapa WRKY7

JA:

Jasmonic acid

Pcc :

Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum

Pst :

Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato

SA:

Salicylic acid

TF:

Transcription factor

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by grants PJ007850 and PJ010870 from the RDA awarded to Dr. Duk-Ju Hwang.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. National Academy of Agricultural Science, Rural Development Administration, Jeonju, 560-550, Korea

      Yu Jin Ko, Seokhyun Lee, Kyungyoung Song, Sang-Yeol Park, Ilpyung Ahn, Shin-cheol Bae, Yeon Hee Lee & Duk-Ju Hwang

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    1. Yu Jin Ko
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    2. Seokhyun Lee
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    3. Kyungyoung Song
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    Correspondence to Duk-Ju Hwang.

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    Yu Jin Ko and Seokhyun Lee contributed equally to this work.

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    Ko, Y.J., Lee, S., Song, K. et al. Heterologous expression of the Brassica rapa transcription factor BrWRKY7 enhances resistance against bacterial soft rot caused by Pectobacterium carotovorum in Arabidopsis . Plant Biotechnol Rep 9, 179–186 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-015-0354-7

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