Abstract
Phospholipases A2 (PLA2s) are enzymes that hydrolyze phospholipids at the sn-2 fatty acyl bond to release free fatty acids and lysophospholipids. In plant, PLA2s form a large family of structurally related enzymes like in animal kingdom, which is composed of secreted PLA2 (sPLA2) and patatin-like PLA2. Plant PLA2s were demonstrated to play a part in various biological processes including lipid digestion, defense responses to pathogen attacks and wounding, and signal trandsduction. In this study, we investigated the gene expression of sPLA2s in response to methyl jasmonate and the cellular localization of sPLA2s. The exposure of methyl jasmonate caused the stimulatory expression of sPLA2 genes in suspension-cultured Arabidopsis T87 cells as well as jasmonate-inducible genes such as vegetative storage protein. Furthermore sPLA2α-GFP was mainly localized in the intercellular region. These data suggested that sPLA2α could be secreted to hydrolyze phospholipids in target cells in respose to jasmonate.
