Isolation and characterization of novel defence-related genes induced by copper, salicylic acid, methyl jasmonate, abscisic acid and pathogen infection in Brassica carinata.

Summary To examine the defence response in Brassica carinata we differentially screened a cDNA library made from CuCl(2)-treated (Cu) leaves. The sequence of 17 of the 27 cDNA clones examined that showed Cu-induction had a high similarity to defence genes from other plant species. Among other clones that showed higher expression in the Cu leaves were two cDNAs encoding polypeptides of 351 and 250 amino acids, designated BcCJS1 and BcCJAS1. BcCJS1 had similarity to S-adenosyl-l-methionine: salicylic acid carboxyl methyltransferase from Clarkia breweri. However, the enzyme activity was not found in extracts from E. coli expressing BcCJS1. BcCJAS1 did not show extensive similarity to any genes with known function in the databases but it did contain three regions of amino acid sequence that are frequently found in amidotransferases. A third Cu-induced mRNA, Bcp6PGL, showed very high (86%) similarity to a putative 6-phosphogluconolactonase (6PGL) from Arabidopsis thaliana. In addition to Cu induction, BcCJS1 expression was induced by methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and salicylic acid (SA), BcCJAS1 expression by MeJA, SA and abscisic acid and Bcp6PGL expression by MeJA. The expression of all three genes increased after Alternaria brassicae infection. BcCJS1 and BcCJAS1 were induced within 1 h after MeJA- but not until 3 h after SA-treatment. The expression of both genes was systemically induced after infection with a compatible or incompatible fungal pathogen. SA systemically induced only BcCJAS1. The effects of various inhibitors of signalling pathways on expression of the three genes were studied.