Regulation of non-specific lipid transfer proteins in abiotically stressed Physcomitrella patens

Sammanfattning:

Non-specific lipid transfer proteins is a large and diverse protein family found in plants, with roles in biological systems ranging from long distance signaling to plant pathogen defense. Little is known about the roles of nsLTPs, but recent studies have cast some light on the issue, among other things proposing that they may be involved in the cutice formation on land-living liverworts, mosses and non-seedbearing plants. Increased cuticle formation is thought to be a part of a plants defense system against stress. In this experiment, the expression of nsLTPs type G in the moss Physcomitrella patens was examined by qRT-PCR on cDNA synthesized from already existing mRNA samples from moss under different abiotic stresses. The different stresses were UV-light, salt (ion toxicity), heavy metal, cold drought, plant hormone and osmosis. House-keeping gene P. patens beta-tubuline 1 was used as reference and relative expression analysis was performed. The study showed a general down-regulation of PpLTPg's in the abiotically stressed samples, and the possible coupled regulatory response of PpLTPg3 and PpLTPg5. The results imply that the PpLTPg's in Physcomitrella patens could be connected to biological processes that cease during stress, or that they worl through negative feedback to support plant defense against stress.