Arabidopsis Research Heats Up in Seville

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Cologne, Germany) reported on the func- tional analysis of the heptahelical trans- membrane (7-TM) MLO protein family in Arabidopsis. Barley MLO has been identi- fied as the prototype of a family of 7-TM proteins in plants (Büschges et al., 1997; Devoto et al., 1999). Lack of the wild-type protein leads to broad-spectrum disease resistance against the pathogenic pow- dery mildew fungus Blumeria graminis f. sp hordei . The Arabidopsis genome en- codes 15 Mlo family members, and each of the genes is expressed. It has been shown that MLO mediates defense modu- lation via direct Ca 2 � -dependent interac- tion with calmodulin and independently of heterotrimeric G-proteins (Kim et al., 2002). The current project aims to identify the functions of the 15 MLO family members in Arabidopsis. Systematic knockout of multiple Arabidopsis Mlo genes will allow the determination of the role of one or sev- eral family members in plant defense or other biological processes.