The bioactive form of jasmonate is the conjugate of the amino acid isoleucine (Ile) with jasmonic acid (JA), which is biosynthesized in a reaction catalysed by the GH3 enzyme JASMONATE RESISTANT 1 (JAR1). We examined the biochemical properties of OsJAR1 and its involvement in photomorphogenesis of rice (Oryza sativa). OsJAR1 has a similar substrate specificities as its orthologue in Arabidopsis. However, osjar1 loss-of-function mutants did not show as severe coleoptile phenotypes as the JA-deficient mutants coleoptile photomorphogenesis 2 (cpm2) and hebiba, which develop long coleoptiles in all light qualities we examined. Analysis of hormonal contents in the young seedling stage revealed that osjar1 mutants are still able to synthesize JA-Ile conjugate in response to blue light, suggesting that a redundantly active enzyme can conjugate JA and Ile in rice seedlings. A good candidate for this enzyme is OsJAR2, which was found to be able to catalyse the conjugation of JA with Ile as well as with some additional amino acids. In contrast, if plants in the vegetative stage were mechanically wounded, the content of JA-Ile was severely reduced in osjar1, demonstrating that OsJAR1 is the most important JA-Ile conjugating enzyme in the wounding response during the vegetative stage.
Keywords: GH3; JAR1; Oryza sativa L.; jasmonate; mechanical wounding; photomorphogenesis.
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.