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Hypocotyls from etiolated cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) seedlings were gently abraded at their epidermal surface, and cut segments were used to study the rapid and transient elicitation of H2O2 by ergosterol, chitosan, mastoparan, and a polymeric fungal elicitor. Freshly abraded segments were only barely competent for any H2O2 production, but they developed this competence subsequent to abrasion. This process was enhanced by 2,6-dichloroisonicotinic acid and salicylic acid, which induced acquired resistance to fungal penetration in the epidermal cells. Enhancement of competence induction by salicylic acid was also evident for spontaneous H2O2 production and differed in degree for the various elicitors, indicating that mainly the enzyme complex producing H2O2, but also other components of the elicitation system, improved. Ergosterol, chitosan, and fungal elicitor also rendered the segments refractory to a second stimulation by the same compound, whereas mastoparan was inactive in this respect. The four elicitors also differed markedly in their ability to diminish or enhance H2O2 production by a second treatment with a different elicitor, indicating that several sites of the H2O2 elicitation system are subject to short-term regulation.

The plasma-membrane-localized 1,3-ß-glucan synthase (EC 2.4.1.34) from suspension cultures of Glycine max (L.) Merr. was greatly enriched by a three-step purification procedure. Starting with a microsomal preparation, a six- to eightfold enrichment of the enzyme was achieved by isolating plasma-membrane vesicles in a polyethyleneglycol/dextran two-phase system. The enzyme was solubilized with the nonionic detergent digitonin and further purified 12-fold by successive centrifugations on two linear sucrose density gradients. The most purified enzyme preparation showed enrichment in a 31-kilodalton (kDa) polypeptide and was used to raise polyspecific antibodies which precipitated 1,3-ß-glucan synthase activity. These antibodies were purified by affinity chromatography against immobilized membrane protein fractions of lower molecular weight which were devoid of 1,3-ß-glucan synthase activity. The purified antibodies specifically labelled a single polypeptide of 31 kDa in the 1,3-ß-glucan-synthase-containing heavy fractions of the first sucrose gradient indicating that this polypeptide represents part of the active enzyme complex.

Partially and fully deacetylated chitosan fragments and oligomers were compared for their potency to elicit formation of the 1.3-ß-glucan callose in suspension-cultured cells and protoplasts of Catharanthus roseus (line 385). Chitosan oligomers induced little callose formation, while callose synthesis increased with the degree of polymerization of chitosan up to several thousand corresponding to a molecular mass near 106 Da. At a comparable degree of polymerization, partially N-acetylated chitosan fragments were less effective. Colloidal chitin and chitin oligomers induced only trace callose synthesis in protoplasts. These results indicate that the primary interaction involved the amino groups of chitosan and numerous negative charges at the surface of the plasma membrane with spacing in the nanometer range and occurring regularly over micrometer stretches. Charged phospholipid head-groups may fulfill these requirements. The resulting alteration of membrane fluidity may lead to the changes in ion transport known to be associated with the induction of callose formation.

In suspension-cultured cells of Glycine max and Catharanthus roseus, marked callose synthesis can be induced by digitonin and chitosan. Leakage of a limited pool of electrolytes precedes callose formation, K+ representing the major cation lost. Poly-L-ornithine, as well as the ionophores A 23187 and ionomycin, also induces some callose synthesis but to a lesser extent. Digitonin increases the net uptake of Ca2+ from the external buffer with a time course parallel to callose synthesis but lagging behind the leakage of K+. Nifedipine partly blocks callose synthesis as well as the digitonin-induced increase in net Ca2+ uptake. Taken together, the data support the hypothesis that addition of the various substances might indirectly lead to membrane perturbation causing the common event of an increase in net Ca2+ uptake which results in callose deposition by a direct activition of the Ca2+-dependent and plasma-membane-located 1,3-ß-glucan synthase.

Sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation and partitioning in a polyethylene glycol/dextran two-phase system were used to isolate plasmamembrane vesicles from microsomal preparations of soybean cell suspension cultures. Both methods resulted in the enrichment of the activity of a 1,3-ß-glucan synthase which forms a polymer consisting of more than 99% of 1,3-linked glucose (callose). Digitonin increases the 1,3-ß-glucan synthase activity in the various membrane fractions to a different degree, supporting the suggestion that this enzyme is vectorially arranged in the plasma membrane. The enzyme is greatly activated either by poly-l-ornithine or synergistically by Ca2+ and spermine, indicating that the same enzyme is affected and exhibits the regulatory properties necessary for callose synthesis.

To study H2O2 production, the epidermal surfaces of hypocotyl segments from etiolated seedlings of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) were gently abraded. Freshly abraded segments were not constitutively competent for rapid H2O2 elicitation. This capacity developed subsequent to abrasion in a time-dependent process that was greatly enhanced in segments exhibiting an acquired resistance to penetration of their epidermal cell walls by Colletotrichum lagenarium, because of root pretreatment of the respective seedlings with 2,6-dichloroisonicotinic acid. When this compound or salicylic acid was applied to abraded segments, it also greatly enhanced the induction of competence for H2O2 elicitation. This process was fully inhibited by 5 [mu]M cycloheximide or 200 [mu]M puromycin, suggesting a requirement for translational protein synthesis. Both a crude elicitor preparation and a partially purified oligoglucan mixture from Phytophthora sojae also induced, in addition to H2O2 production, a refractory state, which explains the transient nature of H2O2 elicitation. Taken together, these results suggest that the cucumber hypocotyl epidermis becomes conditioned for competence to produce H2O2 in response to elicitors by a stimulus resulting from breaching the cuticle and/or cutting segments. This conditioning process is associated with protein synthesis and is greatly enhanced when substances able to induce systemic acquired resistance are present in the tissue.