Calcium Ion Signaling System: Calcium Signatures and Sensors - PAMP Signals in Plant Innate Immunity: Signal Perception and Transduction - page 258

Rhizoctonia solani , and the bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum in tobacco
(Takabatake et al. 2007 ). Overexpression of the soybean calmodulins GMCaM-4/5
induces constitutive PR gene expression and activates trans -acting elements that
bind to cis -acting elements in the Arabidopsis PR-1 promoter. The up-regulation of
PR genes by these GmCaM isoforms was found to be dependent on NIM1
(Nonimmunity1) and unknown transcription factors (Park et al. 2004 ). Constitutive
expression of soybean CaMs SCaM-4 and SCaM-5 in transgenic tobacco plants
induced an array of defense-related genes. The transgenic plants showed defense
responses against the oomycete Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae, the bacte-
rial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci , and the viral pathogen Tobacco
mosaic virus (TMV) (Heo et al. 1999 ).
Calmodulin-like (CML) proteins also have been shown to trigger Ca 2+ signaling
system. Overexpression of a tomato CML, APR134 , in Arabidopsis accelerated
hypersensitive immune response (Chiasson et al. 2005 ). Calmodulin-binding
proteins (CBPs), another important components in calcium signaling system also
trigger a series of defense responses. Overexpression of CBP60g in Arabidopsis
caused elevated SA accumulation, increased expression of the defense genes, and
enhanced defense responses, and the transgenic plants showed enhanced resistance
to Pseudomonas syringae (Wan et al. 2012 ). Transgenic potato plants carrying a
calcium-dependent protein kinase, which induces ROS, show high defense responses
against the oomycete P. infestans (Kobayashi et al. 2007 ). Collectively these studies
suggest that manipulation of even one component in the Ca 2+ signaling system may
be able to trigger the entire gamut of immune response signaling systems to confer
resistance against a wide-spectrum of pathogens.
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