Silencing of plant defensin type 1 reduces sensitivity to pathogens and zinc toxicity in arabidopsis thaliana

Ectopic expression of defensins in plants correlates with their increased capacity to withstand abiotic and biotic stresses(Carvalho & Gomes, 2011). However, few studies have explored the effects of decreased plant endogenous defensin transcripts on these stress responses.When over-expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana, some of the seven members of thePlant Defensin type 1 family (PDF1) are recognised to improve plant responses tonecrotrophic pathogens(De Conincket al.,2010)and increase seedling tolerance to excess zinc (Zn;Mirouzeet al., 2006). We carried out an extensive physiological and biochemical comparative characterisation of i) novel transgenic amiRNA lines silenced for the five most s…