Title: Functional characterization of banana NPR1 genes in disease response.

 

The non-expressor of pathogenesis-related gene 1 (NPR1) is an essential positive regulator of salicylic acid (SA)-induced pathogenesis-related (PR) gene expression and systemic acquired resistance (SAR), which is important in broad spectrum pathogen resistance in plants. The genes encoding the nonexpressor of pathogenesis related protein have been described in many species and recently also our research group has identified and isolated two novel full length NPR1-like genes; MNPR1A and MNPR1B, from banana by application of the Southern blot, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) techniques. Expression of theMNPR1 genes was further shown to be directly related to PR gene expression known to be involved in fungal resistance after treatment of banana plants with various elicitors.

 

In the proposed project I want to address the problem of functional characterization of the NPR1 gene family by characterizing the function of these two newly identified banana NPR1 genes MNPR1A and MNPR1B. Particular objective will be, investigating their involvement in the plant response to fungal and bacterial diseases by using npr1 Arabidopsis mutants. A second problem to be addressed will be elucidating the mechanism of NPR1 activation by glutathione with the objective of using Arabidopsis mutants deficient in cytosolic glutathione So far very little information exist on the direct link between cytosolic glutathione content and NPR1 activation which might affect the production of monomeric active NPR1.