UV‐B activates a ‘group A’ mitogen activated protein kinase in Oryza sativa

Abstract

Increased level of Ultra violet-B radiation at earth’s surface has several deleterious consequences for plants and ecosystems. Higher UV-B level affects crop plants in several ways and also gives penalty in terms of crop yield. With changing climatic conditions it is crucial to elucidate signal transduction pathway involved in UV-B stress. Here, involvement of mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in UV-B stress was investigated in rice (Oryza sativa). Transcripts profiling of all 15 rice MAPKs have shown UV-B induced expressions of a few MAPK genes including OsMPK3, OsMPK6, OsMPK4, OsMPK17-1, OsMPK17-2, OsMPK20-1, OsMPK20-4 and OsMPK20-5. In-gel kinase assay as well as immuno-kinase assay showed activation of single MAPK of size ~45 kDa in response to UV-B treatment. Further UV-B responsive activity of rice MAPKs, OsMPK3, OsMPK4 and OsMPK6 was checked using antibodies for the respective orthologs in Arabidopsis which indicated activation of OsMPK3 in UV-B stress. Additionally, GST: OsMPK3 protein showed UV responsive phosphorylation when incubated with crude protein extract from UV exposed plants in an in-vitro phosphorylation assay. These results indicate activation of OsMPK3 in UV-B stress. Further, possible involvement of UV-B responsive OsWRKY89 downstream of MAPK cascade was studied. It was observed that staurosporin and other specific chemical inhibitors of MAPK could attenuate UV-B induced expression of OsWRKY89. OsMPK3 was also found to interact with OsWRKY89 in yeast two-hybrid assay, although the interaction was weak in nature. The present work gives an account of MAPKs in UV-B stress in rice.