Owing to their sessile nature plants are constantly in danger of different types of biotic and abiotic stress. Crop diseases caused by different pathogens can have devastating effects on the world food production. One of the main and widely spread crop pathogens is the potato virus Y (PVY), which causes vast crop losess all over the globe. Plants defense mechanisms against pathogens have been thoroughly studied in model plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana, while we still lack a lot of information about mechanisms in other plants. Hence, our main goal of the thesis was to study transcriptional regulation of potato (Solanum tuberosum, L.) in response to viral infection, since potato is considered one of the main crops, following rice, wheat and maize.
During the evolution platns have developed a multilayered response to pathogens, comprising of pattern triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI). Despite differences in the recognition mechanisms, both PTI and ETI can trigger activation of MAP-kinase cascade signaling, alterations in calcium levels, reactive oxygen species production, transcriptional regulation and hormonal changes.
Our thesis focuses mainly on a group of TGA (TGACG-binding proteins) transcription factors, belonging to the basic leucine zipper (bZIP) protein family. Contrary to other members of the group, at National institute of biology recently identified mini-TGA StTGA2.1, lacks most of the bZIP DNA-binding domain. Therefore, we performed transactivation studies on N. benthamiana plants, confirming that StTGA2.1 is unable to directly bind DNA target. However, it can regulate StPRX07 promoter activity by forming heterodimers with other StTGAs II (StTGA2.3) and thus likely to contribute to ROS production as StPRX07 belongs to the class III of peroxidases, also known to be included in plant immune response.
There is no clear connection between PVY infection StTGA transcription factors yet known. However, results of the thesis contribute to better understanding of molecular mechanisms of those transcription factors as well as show the importance of transactivation assay in studying complex protein-DNA interaction.
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