Rice SAPs are responsive to multiple biotic stresses and overexpression of OsSAP1, an A20/AN1 zinc-finger protein, enhances the basal resistance against pathogen infection in tobacco

Eukaryotic A20/AN1 zinc-finger proteins (ZFPs) play an important role in the regulation of immune and stress response. After elucidation of the role of first such protein, OsSAP1, in abiotic stress tolerance, 18 rice stress associated protein (SAP) genes have been shown to be regulated by multiple abiotic stresses. In the present study, expression pattern of all the 18 OsSAP genes have been analysed in response to different biotic stress simulators, in order to get insights into their possible involvement in biotic stress tolerance. Our results showed the upregulation of OsSAP1 and OsSAP11 by all biotic stress simulator treatments. Furthermore, the functional role of OsSAP1 in plant defence responses has been explored through overexpression in transgenic plants. Constitutive expression of OsSAP1 in transgenic tobacco resulted into enhanced disease resistance against virulent bacterial pathogen, together with the upregulation of known defence-related genes. Present investigation suggests that rice SAPs are responsive to multiple biotic stresses and OsSAP1 plays a key role in basal resistance against pathogen infection. This strongly supports the involvement of rice SAPs in cross-talk between biotic and abiotic stress signalling pathways, which makes them ideal candidate to design strategies for protecting crop plants against multiple stresses.