%0 Journal Article
%T Functional analysis of Arabidopsis WRKY25 transcription factor in plant defense against Pseudomonas syringae
%A Zuyu Zheng
%A Stephen L Mosher
%A Baofang Fan
%A Daniel F Klessig
%A Zhixiang Chen
%J BMC Plant Biology
%D 2007
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2229-7-2
%X We analyzed the role of the WRKY25 transcription factor from Arabidopsis in plant defense against the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. WRKY25 protein recognizes the TTGACC W-box sequences and its translational fusion with green fluorescent protein is localized to the nucleus. WRKY25 expression is responsive to general environmental stress. Analysis of stress-induced WRKY25 in the defense signaling mutants npr1, sid2, ein2 and coi1 further indicated that this gene is positively regulated by the salicylic acid (SA) signaling pathway and negatively regulated by the jasmonic acid signaling pathway. Two independent T-DNA insertion mutants for WRKY25 supported normal growth of a virulent strain of P. syringae but developed reduced disease symptoms after infection. By contrast, Arabidopsis constitutively overexpressing WRKY25 supported enhanced growth of P. syringae and displayed increased disease symptom severity as compared to wild-type plants. These WRKY25-overexpressing plants also displayed reduced expression of the SA-regulated PR1 gene after the pathogen infection, despite normal levels of free SA.The nuclear localization and sequence-specific DNA-binding activity support that WRKY25 functions as a transcription factor. Based on analysis of both T-DNA insertion mutants and transgenic overexpression lines, stress-induced WRKY25 functions as a negative regulator of SA-mediated defense responses to P. syringae. This proposed role is consistent with the recent finding that WRKY25 is a substrate of Arabidopsis MAP kinase 4, a repressor of SA-dependent defense responses.Plants are subjected to constant attack by a variety of microbial pathogens and herbivores and they have evolved a complex battery of defense mechanisms that are activated by multiple defense signaling pathways. Thus, in response to infection by some microbial pathogens, the interacting EDS1 and PAD4 proteins are induced and activated; these proteins positively regulate biosynthesis of salicylic ac
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/7/2