Plants 2014, 3(3), 427-441; doi:10.3390/plants3030427
Calmodulin Gene Expression in Response to Mechanical Wounding and Botrytis cinerea Infection in Tomato Fruit
1
Food Quality Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
2
College of Life Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 2 May 2014 / Revised: 11 August 2014 / Accepted: 20 August 2014 / Published: 29 August 2014
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interaction Between Abiotic and Biotic Stresses in Plants)
Abstract
Calmodulin, a ubiquitous calcium sensor, plays an important role in decoding stress-triggered intracellular calcium changes and regulates the functions of numerous target proteins involved in various plant physiological responses. To determine the functions of calmodulin in fleshy fruit, expression studies were performed on a family of six calmodulin genes (SlCaMs) in mature-green stage tomato fruit in response to mechanical injury and Botrytis cinerea infection. Both wounding and pathogen inoculation triggered expression of all those genes, with SlCaM2 being the most responsive one to both treatments. Furthermore, all calmodulin genes were upregulated by salicylic acid and methyl jasmonate, two signaling molecules involved in plant immunity. In addition to SlCaM2, SlCaM1 was highly responsive to salicylic acid and methyl jasmonate. However, SlCaM2 exhibited a more rapid and stronger response than SlCaM1. Overexpression of SlCaM2 in tomato fruit enhanced resistance to Botrytis-induced decay, whereas reducing its expression resulted in increased lesion development. These results indicate that calmodulin is a positive regulator of plant defense in fruit by activating defense pathways including salicylate- and jasmonate-signaling pathways, and SlCaM2 is the major calmodulin gene responsible for this event. View Full-Text
Figure 1
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Peng, H.; Yang, T.; II, W.M.J. Calmodulin Gene Expression in Response to Mechanical Wounding and Botrytis cinerea Infection in Tomato Fruit. Plants 2014, 3, 427-441.