The Arabidopsis gp91-phox Gene Family and NADPH Oxidase Function

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

Plants cannot move to defend themselves from aggressions in their environment. Also they do not posses a complex, circulating, cell-based immunological system of defense like vertebrates. However, plants have evolved an immune system for pathogen recognition that initiates a set of cellular responses that collectively stop the intruder or can react and respond to stress situations. Production of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROI) is one of the earlier responses observed after pathogen infection in plants. ROI produced may directly participate in the killing of the invading pathogens, but could also act as a signal that induces further defenses. A plasma membrane bound NADPH oxidase is the likely source of ROI in plants. This oxidase, also known as the respiratory burst oxidase (RBO), was initially described in mammalian macrophages and is a multienzymatic complex that mediate the killing of microbes. This protein is the enzymatic subunit of the NADPH oxidase that uses molecular oxygen to make superoxide. Arabidopsis has a 10 member Atrboh (Arabidopsis thaliana respiratory burst oxidase homologs), gene family, homologous to the animal protein called gp91phox. However, the precise subunit structure of the NADPH oxidase and the regulation of its activation appear to be different than in mammalian macrophages. It is becoming evident that ROI is not an executioner but a signal that mediate the activation of the defenses as well as other responses to the environment and developmental processes. In mammals, multiple isoforms of gp91phox act in different cell types, and perform different functions. Similarly, different NADPH oxidases in plants may also mediates production of apoplastic ROI in different tissues and in responses to different environmental stimuli. For example, our group has shown that AtrbohD and AtrbohF are responsible for the production of ROI during the defense response and that ROI generated through these members of the Atrboh family are required as second messengers in ABA signaling during stomata closure. Also, the oxidative burst mediated by AtrbohC regulates plant cell expansion during root hair formation through the activation of channels that allow calcium to move in and out of the cell.. Interestingly, Nitric Oxide (NO), another reactive molecule that mediates cell death in mammalian macrophages, may regulate plant responses in conjunction to ROI. Studies show that interaction with pathogens trigger NO release, and ROI and NO seem to, then, work synergistically to control the hypersensitive response. The goal of this project is to decipher, using functional genomics tools, the functions of the plant NADPH oxidase gene family. The hypothesis to be tested is that different members of Atrboh, components of the plant NADPH oxidase, control production of ROI during defense response and in developmental processes, PCD and other responses to the environment. The connections between ROI and NO, another important regulator of PCD and other responses, will be also investigated. The identification of the Atrboh genes also enables to study the mechanism that activates the plant NADPH oxidase. This is particularly relevant since important regulatory elements of the mammalian NADPH oxidase appear to be absent in the plant oxidase. Studies will be conducted to identify more components of the ROI signaling, especially those involved in earlier steps of the signal transduction pathway that regulate Atrboh function, as well as putative targets or mediators of ROI-dependent signaling. These studies will allow to further understand the function of ROI during disease resistance responses, as well as in a range of developmental responses mediated by ROI and NO.