Poster: Plant-pathogen interactions

Abs # 566: Investigating putative RPS2-interacting proteins for roles in plant disease resistance.

Presenter:	Genger, Ruth K, rkg@plantpath.wisc.edu
Authors	Genger, Ruth K (A)   Bent, Andrew F (A)
Affiliations:	(A): Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Arabidopsis gene RPS2 encodes a member of the NB-LRR (nucleotide binding site, leucine rich repeat) class of proteins, which in plants is associated exclusively with disease resistance. Strong parallels between plant disease resistance and animal immune function, which also involves NB-LRR proteins, are emerging. RPS2 induces a strong disease resistance response when Arabidopsis plants are infected with Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato strains that express the effector protein AvrRpt2. We are interested in identifying proteins that interact with RPS2 and have a role in RPS2-mediated disease resistance. A previous yeast 2-hybrid screen identified 12 Arabidopsis proteins that interacted with RPS2 in the cytosol. These RPS2-interacting proteins (RPIs) are now being analyzed in a number of ways. We have conducted further yeast-based assays with mutant alleles of RPS2, and have conducted experiments in the presence or absence of AvrRpt2. We have identified T-DNA insertion lines for several RPIs, and have characterized various aspects of their defense response, focused primarily on infection with AvrRpt2-expressing P. syringae. We are also establishing epitope-tagged alleles stably expressed under control of the native promoter in Arabidopsis, to assay in planta interactions of these proteins with RPS2.