Oligogalacturonide-mediated induction of a gene involved in jasmonic acid synthesis in response to the cell-wall-degrading enzymes of the plant pathogen Erwinia carotovora

Identification of Arabidopsis thaliana genes responsive to plant cell-wall-degrading enzymes of Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora led to the isolation of a cDNA clone with high sequence homology to the gene for allene oxide synthase, an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of jasmonates. Expression of the corresponding gene was induced by the extracellular enzymes from this pathogen as well as by treatment with methyl jasmonate and short oligogalacturonides (OGAs). This suggests that OGAs are involved in the induction of the jasmonate pathway during plant defense response to E. carotovora subsp. carotovora attack.