Abstract
Microarray analysis of the chitin oligosaccharide elicitor-treated cultured rice cells revealed the enhanced expression of a receptor kinase gene, of which extracellular domain showed a high homology with a PR protein. The expression of this gene was induced by chitin oligosaccharides depended on their size and structure. Cycloheximide itself also induced the expression of the gene in the absence of the elicitor. Protein kinase/phosphatase inhibitors and DPI did not affect the induction of the gene expression. The encoded receptor kinase protein was detected in the plasma membrane by western blotting. Intracellular domain of the receptor kinase expressed in E. coli as a GST-fusion protein showed a strong auto-phosphorylation activity but those proteins with mutations for putative active site amino acid residues showed no or weak autophosphorylation. Knock-down cell lines by RNAi as well as over-expressor are being developed.
