Browsing by Subject "Isochorismate Synthase 1"

Salicylic acid (SA) is a well-known phytohormone involved in pathogen defense, development and controlling the cellular redox balance. In response to stresses, Arabidopsis thaliana synthesizes SA in the chloroplasts mainly via the isochorismate (IC) pathway: IC synthase (ICS) uses chorismate to produce IC, which is in turn converted to SA. ICS1 is the rate limiting enzyme in SA biosynthesis. The ICS1 protein localizes in the chloroplasts and contains a chloroplast transit peptide sequence, which is the first 45 amino acids in the N-terminus. Under different light conditions, plants employ different stress defense strategies. In a previous study, wild type (WT) Arabidopsis thaliana ecotype Columbia-0 grown under different light conditions [short day (SD; 8h light/16h dark), long day (LD; 16h light/8h dark) and 12h light/12h dark] was exposed to ozone for 1 hour (350 ppb). In a phosphoproteomic approach to study signaling mechanisms, ICS1 has been found as an in vivo phosphoprotein in ozone-treated plants grown under SD condition by mass spectrometry (MS). To analyze the phosphorylation of ICS1 in vitro, WT and phospho-negative ICS1 proteins were produced recombinantly as GST-fusion proteins in E. coli and used as the substrates for targeted kinase assays. Phospho-negative ICS1 protein was generated by mutating the phospho-sites to alanines by site-directed mutagenesis. ICS1 could be phosphorylated either in the cytosol or in the chloroplasts. Therefore, different cytosolic kinases, which are involved in various stress signaling events, and a chloroplast protein kinase that functions as a dominant regulator of chloroplast processes, were selected as the kinases to be tested. In this study, GST-ICS1 could be successfully phosphorylated in vitro. To a similar extent, GST-phospho-negative ICS1 was phosphorylated, indicating that ICS1 was phosphorylated in vitro at sites that were different from the ones found by MS from plant material. In order to study the identified phospho-sites in vivo, transgenic Arabidopsis carrying WT, phospho-positive, and phospho-negative ICS1 proteins were generated. Transgenic plants were confirmed by genotyping. Western blotting was carried out to evaluate ECFP-WT ICS1 protein expression. However, none of the transgenic plants could be confirmed to carry ECFP-WT ICS1. Additionally, an antibody against AtICS1 produced by the company Agrisera was tested for its specificity against the endogenous ICS1 protein. While the antibody could detect recombinant GST-ICS1 protein, ICS1 could not be detected from a total protein extract.