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Overexpression of Pti5 in Tomato Potentiates Pathogen-Induced Defense Gene Expression and Enhances Disease Resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato

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    Authors and Affiliations
    • Ping He 1 2
    • Randall F. Warren 1
    • Tiehan Zhao 1
    • Libo Shan 1 2
    • Lihuang Zhu 2
    • Xiaoyan Tang 1
    • Jian-Min Zhou 1

      The tomato Pti5 gene encodes a pathogen-inducible ethylene response element-binding protein-like transcription factor that interacts with the disease resistance gene product Pto. Overexpression of Pti5 or Pti5-VP16, a translational fusion with a constitutive transcriptional activation domain, in tomato enhanced resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. Constitutive expression of Pti5 or Pti5-VP16 did not affect the basal level of pathogenesis-related gene expression, but it accelerated pathogen-induced expression of GluB and Catalase. The results demonstrate a positive role of Pti5 in defense gene regulation and disease resistance and suggest that a pathogen-activated posttran-scriptional regulatory step is necessary for the pathogen induction of the defense gene expression.