SAG2 and SAG12 protein expression in senescing Arabidopsis plants

During leaf senescence, nutrients are remobilized from the senescing tissues to the growing parts of the plant. Many senescence-associated genes (SAGs) were identified based on the induction of their transcripts. However, little is known about the protein expression of the corresponding genes. We have raised antibodies against two Arabidopsis SAGs, SAG2 and SAG12, which encode putative cysteine proteases. The SAG2 antibodies recognized a 29-kDa protein that was abundant in senescing leaves, but was also present at low levels in green tissues. SAG12 antibodies labelled a 38-kDa protein present only in senescent leaves. The protein expression of these SAGs parallels their mRNA expression patterns, indicating that control of SAG2 and SAG12 is at the level of transcription or transcript stability. In addition, we found that SAGs are induced during stem senescence with delayed kinetics of their expression relative to leaf expression, suggesting that age-dependent factor(s) regulating the onset of senescence in Arabidopsis may act in tissue-dependent manner.