Increasing plant susceptibility to Agrobacterium infection by overexpression of the Arabidopsis nuclear protein VIP1
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5215
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Edited by Patricia C. Zambryski, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved June 11, 2002 (received for review May 21, 2002)
Abstract
Agrobacterium is a unique model system as well as a major biotechnological tool for genetic manipulation of plant cells. It is still unknown, however, whether host cellular factors exist that are limiting for infection, and whether their overexpression in plant cells can increase the efficiency of the infection. Here, we examined the effect of overexpression in tobacco plants of an Arabidopsis gene, VIP1, which encodes a recently discovered cellular protein required for Agrobacterium infection. Our results indicate that VIP1 is imported into the plant cell nucleus via the karyopherin αdependent pathway and that elevated intracellular levels of VIP1 render the host plants significantly more susceptible to transient and stable genetic transformation by Agrobacterium, probably because of the increased nuclear import of the transferred-DNA.
Footnotes
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↵* To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: vitaly.citovsky{at}stonybrook.edu.
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This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
Abbreviations
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GFP, green fluorescent protein
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T-DNA, transferred DNA
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DAPI, 4′,6diamidino-2-phenylindole
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GUS, β-glucuronidase
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RT, reverse transcription
- Received May 21, 2002.
- Copyright © 2002, The National Academy of Sciences
