The Promoter of An Ankyrin-like Protein From Vitis vinifera is Highly Induced by Botrytis cinerea Infection

A major goal in plant science is the production of crops with increased and durable resistance to a spectrum of diseases. Early attempts to obtain these traits using overexpression of fungal and bacterial resistance transgene were poorly successful. Therefore, a tight control of transgenes expression is needed to achieve increased resistance. Pathogen inducible promoters seem to be suitable for this purpose as they limit the cost of resistance by restricting the expression at infection site and also can eliminate unwanted effects on grow and development when the disease is not present. Grey mold, caused by Botrytis cinerea, is a prominent grapevine disease in Chile. B. cinerea is a necrotrophic filamentous fungus that is difficult to manage agriculturally because of its broad host spectrum and the different sources of inoculation. Several strategies have been used to enhance grapevine resistance against B. cinerea, but lack of long-lasting and a remarkable increased resistance is an obstacle to achieve pathogen resistance plants. In this study we presented evidence for a novel necrotrophic pathogen and hormone inducible promoter from grapevine. We identify relevant cis-acting elements in a 1000 bp fragment of the ankyrin-like promoter which were dissected in five promoter deletions and then transcriptionally fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP) coding sequence and analyzed in transient expression assays on grapevine in vitro plantlets. Infection with two different necrotrophic pathogens B. cinerea and Alternaria sp. and elicitor treatments with SA, MeJA and ET hormones were performed on these transformed tissues. Results showed differential expression depending on deletion fragments and treatment used. This work is funded by the following Programs: INIA(Chile)-CSIC 501646-70, BIOFRUTALES Consortium, and FONDEF-CHILE G09I1008