In biotic or abiotic stress, immune response is activated in affected plant cells. Information about the type of stress is shared between cells through hormones and other signal molecules synthesized in affected cells.
Immune response can be followed through the activity of promoters of the genes that are involved in the immune response regulatory network. With the selection of a gene promoter from a specific immune response signaling pathway, we can track spatiotemporal dynamics of the activation of chosen genes and therewith, the expansion of the immune response.
In this Master thesis, the applicability of three different methods for testing native inducible plant promoters after transient transformation of tobacco plants Nicotiana benthamiana was tested. These methods are: qualitative beta-glucuronidase assay, quantitative luciferase assay and confocal macroscopy. The luciferase assay was shown to be the most suitable for our purposes as it is fast, sensitive and repeatable and allows measuring of promoter activity in vivo in higher number of samples and through time. The assay was optimized in order to serve our purposes.
Reporter proteins that were used in methods testing were expressed under control of native promoters of genes PR1b, Pti5, MC and CPI8. The first three had already been amplified from potato (Solanum tuberosum) genomic DNA, while promoter regions of CPI8 were amplified from the genome of cultivars Rywal and Désirée according to the reference sequence in Phureja subspecies. Afterwards, predicted cis-regulatory regions were analyzed in the amplified promoter regions. Actual activities of three chosen variants of CPI8 promoters were tested for inducibility to jasmonic acid after transient transformation of tobacco in the optimized luciferase assay. A variant that showed the highest luciferase expression was chosen for a biosensor of jasmonic acid signaling pathway and will be used for stable transformation of potato plants for further studies on plant stress response.
New discoveries about the start and expansion of immune response in plants help us understand the course of plants’ diseases and response to the combination of different stressors. This understanding is key in the preparation of new, more robust plant cultivars.
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