Overexpression of TaPIEP1, a pathogen-induced ERF gene of wheat, confers host-enhanced resistance to fungal pathogen Bipolaris sorokiniana

Bipolaris sorokiniana is an economically important phytopathogen of wheat and other cereal species. In this paper, a novel pathogen-induced ethylene-responsive factor (ERF) gene of wheat, TaPIEP1, was isolated and characterized. The transcript of TaPIEP1 was significantly and rapidly induced by treatments with B. sorokiniana, and with ethylene (ET), jasmonate (JA), and abscisic acid. Molecular and biochemical assays demonstrated that TaPIEP1 is a new ERF transcription activator belonging to B-3c subgroup of the ERF family. Transgenic wheat lines overexpressing TaPIEP1 were generated by biolistic bombardment and molecular screening. Compared with the host wheat Yangmai12, six stable transgenic wheat lines overexpressing TaPIEP1 that exhibited significantly increased resistance to B. sorokiniana were identified by molecular detection in the T0-T4 generations and by disease resistance tests. The degree of the enhanced resistance was correlated with an accumulation of the transcript level of TaPIEP1. Furthermore, the transcript levels of certain defense-related genes in the ET/JA pathways were markedly increased in the transgenic wheat plants with enhanced resistance. These results reveal that TaPIEP1 overexpression in wheat could obviously improve resistance to B. sorokiniana via activation of some defense genes, and TaPIEP1 gene may be useful in improving crop resistance to the pathogen.