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JXB Advance Access published online on November 3, 2009
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/erp301
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© 2009 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

The constitutive expression of Arabidopsis plasmodesmal-associated class 1 reversibly glycosylated polypeptide impairs plant development and virus spread

Raul Zavaliev1, Guy Sagi1, Abed Gera2 and Bernard L. Epel1,*

1Department of Plant Sciences, George S Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
2Department of Plant Pathology, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel

* To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: blepel{at}post.tau.ac.il

Arabidopsis class 1 reversibly glycosylated polypeptides (C1RGPs) were shown to be plasmodesmal-associated proteins. Transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants constitutively expressing GFP tagged AtRGP2 under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter are stunted, have a rosette-like growth pattern, and in source leaves exhibit strong chlorosis, increased photoassimilate retention and starch accumulation that results in elevated leaf specific fresh and dry weights. Basal callose levels around plasmodesmata (Pd) of leaf epidermal cells in transgenic plants are higher than in WT. Such a phenotype is characteristic of virus-infected plants and some transgenic plants expressing Pd-associated viral movement proteins (MP). The local spread of Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is inhibited in AtRGP2:GFP transgenics compared to WT. Taken together these observations suggest that overexpression of the AtRGP2:GFP leads to a reduction in Pd permeability to photoassimilate, thus lowering the normal rate of translocation from source leaves to sink organs. Such a reduction may also inhibit the local cell-to-cell spread of viruses in transgenic plants. The observed reduction in Pd permeability could be due to a partial Pd occlusion caused either by the accumulation of AtRGP2:GFP fusion in Pd, and/or by constriction of Pd by the excessive callose accumulation.

Key words: Callose, plasmodesmata, reversibly glycosylated polypeptide, starch accumulation, stunting, Tobacco mosaic virus, virus spread

Received 23 July 2009; Accepted 3 September 2009


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