Abstract
To clarify the processes involved in plant immunity, we have isolated and characterized Arabidopsis mutant, cad1 (constitutively activated cell death 1), which shows a phenotype that mimics the lesions seen in the hypersensitive response. Inoculation of cad1 mutant plants with virulence pathogen shows that the cad1 mutation results in the restriction of bacterial growth (Plant Cell Physiol. 2005, 46: 902-912). The mutant enhances gene expression of the plant defensin (PDF1.2) which is related to the plant defense pathway regulated by ethylene and jasmonic acid (JA). All the results suggest that resistance to the pathogen in the mutant is associated to the genes of ERF protein which controls ethylene-responsive genes. Microarray analysis using the cad1 mutant revealed some gene for the ERF genes which are likely involved in plant defense. Characters of the ERF gene will be reported
