RPS6 gene is involved in the hopPsyA-dependent disease signaling pathway [abstract]

Abstract

Plants are exposed to a wide variety of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa. In response plants have developed a plethora of strategies aimed at blocking infection by potential pathogens. One form of induced response is the hypersensitive response (HR), during which cells immediately surrounding the site of infection rapidly die. This interaction between these pathogens and plants is governed by the genetics of both organisms. The genes responsible for deterring infection are called disease resistance genes. In fact, disease resistance genes are employed to specifically recognize pathogens expressing cognate genes (appropriately called the avirulence gene). Historically, this has been explained by the gene-for-gene relationship. This relationship predicts that if the pathogen carries an avirulence gene, which is ìrecognizedî by a specific resistance gene in the plant, a plant resistance response is induced. If either the avirulence gene or the resistance gene is absent, then the pathogen causes disease on the plant. In many cases, control of disease resistance conforms to the gene-for-gene hypothesis. Avirulence genes that specify resistance reactions in Arabidopsis often specify resistance reactions in other plant species. Therefore the project is not only important to the plant sciences world but also immensely valuable for agriculture. For example tomato and soybean lines often show similar disease reactions to Pseudomonas syringae. Thus knowing how these genes work in Arabidopsis will immensely help the cultivators in protecting their crop plants such as tomato and soybeans. My involvement in this project has been in the identification, and mapping of a new disease-resistance gene, RPS6. I have been screening plants to isolate mutants; upon the isolation of plants with the desired trait, I will focus my project on narrowing down the location of the gene responsible for the desired trait.