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JXB Advance Access published online on February 3, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/erm317
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© 2008 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/2.0/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

Peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] KNOPE1, a class 1 KNOX orthologue to Arabidopsis BREVIPEDICELLUS/KNAT1, is misexpressed during hyperplasia of leaf curl disease

Giulio Testone1 *, Leonardo Bruno2 *, Emiliano Condello1, Adriana Chiappetta2, Alessandro Bruno2, Giovanni Mele1, Andrea Tartarini3, Laura Spanò3, Anna Maria Innocenti2, Domenico Mariotti1, Maria Beatrice Bitonti2 and Donato Giannino1,{dagger}

1Institute of Biology and Agricultural Biotechnology, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), via Salaria km 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo Scalo, Rome, Italy
2Department of Ecology, University of Calabria, Ponte Bucci, 87030 Arcavacata di Rende, Cosenza, Italy
3Department of Basic and Applied Biology, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, Coppito 67010, L'Aquila, Italy

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: donato.giannino{at}ibba.cnr.it

Class 1 KNOTTED-like (KNOX) transcription factors control cell meristematic identity. An investigation was carried out to determine whether they maintain this function in peach plants and might act in leaf curliness caused by the ascomycete Taphrina deformans. KNOPE1 function was assessed by overexpression in Arabidopsis and by yeast two-hybrid assays with Arabidopsis BELL proteins. Subsequently, KNOPE1 mRNA and zeatin localization was monitored during leaf curl disease. KNOPE1 and Arabidopsis BREVIPEDICELLUS (BP) proteins fell into the same phyletic group and recognized the same BELL factors. 35S:KNOPE1 Arabidopsis lines exhibited altered traits resembling those of BP-overexpressing lines. In peach shoot apical meristem, KNOPE1 was expressed in the peripheral and central zones but not in leaf primordia, identically to the BP expression pattern. These results strongly suggest that KNOPE1 must be down-regulated for leaf initiation and that it can control cell meristem identity equally as well as all class 1 KNOX genes. Leaves attacked by T. deformans share histological alterations with class 1 KNOX-overexpressing leaves, including cell proliferation and loss of cell differentiation. Both KNOPE1 and a cytokinin synthesis ISOPENTENYLTRANSFERASE gene were found to be up-regulated in infected curled leaves. At early disease stages, KNOPE1 was uniquely triggered in the palisade cells interacting with subepidermal mycelium, while zeatin vascular localization was unaltered compared with healthy leaves. Subsequently, when mycelium colonization and asci development occurred, both KNOPE1 and zeatin signals were scattered in sectors of cell disorders. These results suggest that KNOPE1 misexpression and de novo zeatin synthesis of host origin might participate in hyperplasia of leaf curl disease.

Key words: KNOPE1, peach, role in cell undetermined fate, response in leaf curl disease, Taphrina deformans, transcription factor, zeatin

* These authors contributed equally to the work.

Received 19 October 2007; Revised 20 November 2007 Accepted 22 November 2007


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