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Constitutive expression of Arabidopsis NPR1 confers enhanced resistance to the early instars of Spodoptera litura in transgenic tobacco
Author(s) -
Meur Gargi,
Budatha Madhusudhan,
Srinivasan Tantravahi,
Rajesh Kumar Koppolu Raja,
Dutta Gupta Aparna,
Kirti Pulugurtha Bharadwaja
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
physiologia plantarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.351
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1399-3054
pISSN - 0031-9317
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3054.2008.01098.x
Subject(s) - spodoptera litura , biology , npr1 , jasmonic acid , spodoptera , transgene , genetically modified crops , salicylic acid , systemic acquired resistance , heterologous expression , arabidopsis , nicotiana tabacum , ectopic expression , mutant , gene , botany , genetics , larva , medicine , heart failure , natriuretic peptide , recombinant dna
In Arabidopsis , NPR1 ( AtNPR1 ) regulates salicylic acid (SA)‐mediated activation of PR genes at the onset of systemic acquired resistance. AtNPR1 also modulates SA‐induced suppression of jasmonic acid‐responsive gene expression, and npr1 mutants manifest enhanced herbivore resistance. We have raised stable transgenic tobacco lines, expressing AtNPR1 constitutively, which showed elevated expression of PR1 and PR2 genes upon SA treatment. Herbivore bioassays with a generalist polyphagous pest, Spodoptera litura , revealed that the transgenic lines exhibited enhanced resistance compared to the wild‐type plants, particularly with respect to younger larval populations. Insect‐mediated injury induced several protease inhibitors (PIs), more significantly a 40‐kDa serine PI in all the tobacco lines, but the induction was higher in the transgenic plants. We show in this communication that heterologous expression of AtNPR1 provides enhanced resistance to early larval populations of the herbivore, Spodoptera in transgenic tobacco plants.