Ripon College1, Ripon, WI 54971 Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research2, Ithaca, NY 14853
Plants have a multilayered immune response system to protect against attacking pathogens. These layers include pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP)-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) that occur at the site of pathogen infection. In addition, systemic acquired resistance (SAR) extends pathogen resistance to the entire plant. The activation of PTI, ETI, and SAR all require the accumulation of salicylic acid (SA), which pinpoints SA as an essential component of the plant immune response. Studies have also found SA to be involved in many other plant processes including growth, development, and resistance to abiotic stresses. To aid in determining the complex SA signaling networks in plants, on-going research in the Klessig lab is focused on identifying proteins that directly interact with SA, called SA-binding proteins (SABPs). Several dozen Arabidopsis thaliana candidate SABPs were identified through a photoaffinity labeling technique. To validate whether these candidate proteins are real SABPs, each must be purified before further analysis. Six candidate SABPs were cloned and expressed in E. coli; four of them have been purified thus far and will be tested for their SA-binding activity using several independent approaches. This research towards identifying SABPs facilitates the dissection of the complex SA signaling mechanisms in plants.
[Abstract (DOCX)]