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  • The EMBO Journal (2006) 25, 4400 - 4411
  • doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7601312

Published online: 7 September 2006

bZIP10-LSD1 antagonism modulates basal defense and cell death in Arabidopsis following infection

Hironori Kaminaka1,2,a, Christian Näke3,a, Petra Epple1,a, Jan Dittgen3, Katia Schütze4, Christina Chaban4, Ben F Holt III1,b, Thomas Merkle5, Eberhard Schäfer3, Klaus Harter3,4 and Jeffery L Dangl1,6

  1. Department of Biology, Curriculum in Genetics and Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, CB#3280, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  2. Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University, Tottori, Japan
  3. Institut für Biologie II/Botanik, Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
  4. Zentrum für Molekularbiologie der Pflanzen, Pflanzenphysiologie, Tübingen, Germany
  5. Department of Genome Research, Center for Biotechnology, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
  6. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Curriculum in Genetics and Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, CB#3280, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Correspondence to:

Klaus Harter, Zentrum für Molekularbiologie der Pflanzen, Pflanzenphysiologie, Auf der Morgenstelle 1, 72076 Tübingen, Germany. Tel.: +49 7071 2972605; Fax: +49 7071 293287; E-mail: klaus.harter@uni-tuebingen.de

Jeffery L Dangl, Department of Biology, CB#3280, Coker Hall Rm 108, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. Tel.: +1 919 962 5624; Fax: +1 919 962 1625; E-mail: dangl@email.unc.edu

aThese authors contributed equally to this work

bPresent address: University of Oklahoma, Department of Botany and Microbiology, Norman, OK 73019, USA

Received 12 October 2005; Accepted 8 August 2006

Plants use sophisticated strategies to balance responses to oxidative stress. Programmed cell death, including the hypersensitive response (HR) associated with successful pathogen recognition, is one cellular response regulated by reactive oxygen in various cellular contexts. The Arabidopsis basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor AtbZIP10 shuttles between the nucleus and the cytoplasm and binds consensus G- and C-box DNA sequences. Surprisingly, AtbZIP10 can be retained outside the nucleus by LSD1, a protein that protects Arabidopsis cells from death in the face of oxidative stress signals. We demonstrate that AtbZIP10 is a positive mediator of the uncontrolled cell death observed in lsd1 mutants. AtbZIP10 and LSD1 act antagonistically in both pathogen-induced HR and basal defense responses. LSD1 likely functions as a cellular hub, where its interaction with AtbZIP10 and additional, as yet unidentified, proteins contributes significantly to plant oxidative stress responses.

  • Keywords:

    • basal defense,
    • Hyaloperonospora parasitica,
    • hypersensitive cell death,
    • nuclear shuttling,
    • reactive oxygen