Abstract
We have been identified novel putative programmed cell death (PCD) regulators, Arabidopsis thaliana IAP like Protein (AtILP) 1 and AtILP2, which contain two conserved BIR like domains that show weak homology to baculoviral IAP repeat of Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein in animals (Higashi et al.,(2005) Apoptosis 10:471-480). We previously reported that heterologously expressed AtILP1 or AtILP2 affected PCD in tobacco BY-2 (Kobayashi et al., the 47th Annual Meeting of JSPP in 2006).
To further analyses for ILP function, we have isolated tobacco ILP homologs. We found a tobacco EST, AJ718124 from BY-2 using tblastn, then carried out RACE and successfully obtained cDNA sequences including ORF. The cDNA are highly homologous to AtILP1, thus we designate the cDNA as NtILP1. We made two constructs for overexpression and RNAi of NtILP1, respectively, and introduced them into tobacco BY-2 cells. Using these transformants, we are analyzing the function of NtILP1 for plant PCD.
