Poster: Intercellular Signaling

Abs # 801: A volicitin receptor associated with the plasma membrane of maize leaves

Presenter:	Truitt, Christopher L, ironmanchris@hotmail.com
Authors	Truitt, Christopher L (A)   Wei, Han-Xun  (A)   Pare, Paul W (A)
Affiliations:	(A): Texas Tech University, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Lubbock, Texas 79409

N-(17-hydroxylinolenoyl)-L-glutamine, also known as volicitin is an insect elicitor that activates defense genes in maize triggering the synthesis and release of volatile terpenoids and indole. A tritiated form of volicitin synthesized with L-[3,4-³H(N)]glutamine likewise exhibits similar biological activity. ³H-volicitin rapidly, reversibly and saturably bound to plasma membrane fractions isolated from Zea mays leaves with an apparent Kd of 1.3 nM and a Hill coefficient of 1.07. The specificity of binding was assessed with various linolenoyl-glutamine analogs and showed that the L-glutamine and the hydroxy moieties of volicitin play an important role in binding. These data indicate the first evidence of a specific, high-affinity receptor mediating the induction of VOC emissions in maize.