Overexpression of rice OsLOL2 gene confers disease resistance in tobacco to Pseudomonas syringae pv. Tabaci

LSD1-related proteins of Arabidopsis with LSD1-like zinc finger domains regulate disease resistance and programmed cell death (PCD). We cloned a rice OsLOL2 gene, orthologous to LSD1 of Arabidopsis and expressed it in tobacco plant. Transgenic tobacco lines displayed enhanced disease resistance after challenged with virulent bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci (Pst). RT-PCR analysis showed that overexpression of OsLOL2 in transgenic tobacco lines resulted in upregulation of two pathogenesis-related (PR) protein genes, PR2 and PR5. Our results suggest that overexpression of OsLOL2 in transgenic tobacco enhances resistance through induction of PR proteins and hypersensitive response-like reaction.