Sainsbury Laboratory

About: Sainsbury Laboratory is a facility organization based out in Norwich, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Gene & Effector. The organization has 297 authors who have published 341 publications receiving 44204 citations.

An enhanced transient expression system in plants based on suppression of gene silencing by the p19 protein of tomato bushy stunt virus.

Abstract: Transient gene expression is a fast, flexible and reproducible approach to high-level expression of useful proteins. In plants, recombinant strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens can be used for transient expression of genes that have been inserted into the T-DNA region of the bacterial Ti plasmid. A bacterial culture is vacuum-infiltrated into leaves, and upon T-DNA transfer, there is ectopic expression of the gene of interest in the plant cells. However, the utility of the system is limited because the ectopic protein expression ceases after 2-3 days. Here, we show that post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) is a major cause for this lack of efficiency. We describe a system based on co-expression of a viral-encoded suppressor of gene silencing, the p19 protein of tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV), that prevents the onset of PTGS in the infiltrated tissues and allows high level of transient expression. Expression of a range of proteins was enhanced 50-folds or more in the presence of p19 so that protein purification could be achieved from as little as 100 mg of infiltrated leaf material. The effect of p19 was not saturated in cells that had received up to four individual T-DNAs and persisted until leaf senescence. Because of its simplicity and rapidity, we anticipate that the p19-enhanced expression system will have value in industrial production as well as a research tool for isolation and biochemical characterisation of a broad range of proteins without the need for the time-consuming regeneration of stably transformed plants.

A flagellin-induced complex of the receptor FLS2 and BAK1 initiates plant defence

Abstract: Plants sense potential microbial invaders by using pattern-recognition receptors to recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). In Arabidopsis thaliana, the leucine-rich repeat receptor kinases flagellin-sensitive 2 (FLS2) (ref. 2) and elongation factor Tu receptor (EFR) (ref. 3) act as pattern-recognition receptors for the bacterial PAMPs flagellin and elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) (ref. 5) and contribute to resistance against bacterial pathogens. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms that link receptor activation to intracellular signal transduction. Here we show that BAK1 (BRI1-associated receptor kinase 1), a leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase that has been reported to regulate the brassinosteroid receptor BRI1 (refs 6,7), is involved in signalling by FLS2 and EFR. Plants carrying bak1 mutations show normal flagellin binding but abnormal early and late flagellin-triggered responses, indicating that BAK1 acts as a positive regulator in signalling. The bak1-mutant plants also show a reduction in early, but not late, EF-Tu-triggered responses. The decrease in responses to PAMPs is not due to reduced sensitivity to brassinosteroids. We provide evidence that FLS2 and BAK1 form a complex in vivo, in a specific ligand-dependent manner, within the first minutes of stimulation with flagellin. Thus, BAK1 is not only associated with developmental regulation through the plant hormone receptor BRI1 (refs 6,7), but also has a functional role in PRR-dependent signalling, which initiates innate immunity.

Genome-wide association study of 107 phenotypes in Arabidopsis thaliana inbred lines

Abstract: Although pioneered by human geneticists as a potential solution to the challenging problem of finding the genetic basis of common human diseases, genome-wide association (GWA) studies have, owing to advances in genotyping and sequencing technology, become an obvious general approach for studying the genetics of natural variation and traits of agricultural importance. They are particularly useful when inbred lines are available, because once these lines have been genotyped they can be phenotyped multiple times, making it possible (as well as extremely cost effective) to study many different traits in many different environments, while replicating the phenotypic measurements to reduce environmental noise. Here we demonstrate the power of this approach by carrying out a GWA study of 107 phenotypes in Arabidopsis thaliana, a widely distributed, predominantly self-fertilizing model plant known to harbour considerable genetic variation for many adaptively important traits. Our results are dramatically different from those of human GWA studies, in that we identify many common alleles of major effect, but they are also, in many cases, harder to interpret because confounding by complex genetics and population structure make it difficult to distinguish true associations from false. However, a-priori candidates are significantly over-represented among these associations as well, making many of them excellent candidates for follow-up experiments. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of GWA studies in A. thaliana and suggests that the approach will be appropriate for many other organisms.