Download Title: Functional study of a tomato zinc finger protein (SlZFP) in

Title: Functional study of a tomato zinc finger protein (SlZFP) in
bacterial wilt and water deficit response
Author: 陳雅婷 Ya-Ting Chen
Advisor: Dr. Chiu-Ping Cheng(鄭秋萍老師)
Abstract:
M30
5
Biotic and abiotic stresses cause tremendous crop production losses
worldwide. Gathering information and resources on plant defense mechanisms
would certainly benefit developing crop protection strategies. Bacterial wilt (BW)
is a very complex and serious soil-borne vascular disease of many agronomically
important crop species. The causing bacterium, Ralstonia solanacearum (Rs), has
an unusual wide host range covering over 200 species and can survive in soil for a
long period of time. Additionally, it is known that plant responses to BW and water
deficit (WD) share common features. In our previous study, virus-induced gene
silencing (VIGS) assays reveal that a group of genes selected from tomato
microarray analyses play roles in tomato BW-defense. In this study, a tomato
zinc-finger protein (SlZFP) is subjected to further study to elucidate its functions in
BW and WD. Under normal condition, SlZFP-GFP recombinant protein
colocalizes on the cytoskeleton with the microtubule-associated marker protein
MAP4 and the actin-associated marker protein talin in Arabidopsis protoplast.
SlZFP expression is abundant in tomato flower and mature fruit, suppressed by Rs
and pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), while not significantly
altered by phytohormones. Additionally, accumulation of SlZFP transcripts is
increased by drought treatment, and SlZFP silencing resulted in increased
sensitivity to drought stress. Furthermore, silencing of key regulators of defense
signaling transduction pathways, including TGA2.2, ERF3, MKK2 and MKK4, led
to increased SlZFP expression. These results suggest that SlZFP may play an
important role in plant defense responses to disease and water deficit stress. To
further decipher functions of SlZFP in biotic and abiotic stresses, various
SlZFP-overexpressing and -RNAi transgenic plants have been generated and, will
be tested for their responses to various important diseases and abiotic stresses.