Authors: Tali Z Gal Elitsur R Aussenberg Saul Burdman Yoram Kapulnik Hinanit Koltai
Publish Date: 2006/01/04
Volume: 224, Issue: 1, Pages: 155-162
Abstract
A group of plant proteins expansins have been identified as wallloosening factors and as facilitators of cell expansion in vivo The root knot nematode Meloidogyne javanica establishes a permanent feeding site composed of giant cells surrounded by gall tissue We used quantitative PCR and in situ localization to demonstrate the induction of a tomato Lycopersicon esculentum cv VF36 expansin LeEXPA5 expression in gall cells adjacent to the nematode feeding cells To further characterize the biological role of LeEXPA5 we have generated LeEXPA5antisense transgenic roots The ability of the nematode to establish a feeding site and complete its life cycle the average root cell size and the rate of root elongation were determined for the transgenic roots as well as the level of LeEXPA5 expression in noninfected and nematodeinfected roots Our results demonstrated that a decrease of LeEXPA5 expression reduces the ability of the nematode to complete its life cycle in transgenic roots We suggest that a plantoriginated expansin is necessary for a successful parasitic nematode–plant interactionTali Z Gal and Elitsur R Aussenberg contributed equally to this work This work was supported by an Israeli Science Foundation Grant number 522/021 to HK and YK We thank Dr Jim Haseloff Department of Plant Sciences University of Cambridge UK for donating the pBIN mgfp5ER plant transformation vector and Dr Ruth Markus and Mrs Miri Zarhi from the Department of Statistics at the Volcani Center for the statistical analysis
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