Oligogalacturonides prevent rhizogenesis in rolB-transformed tobacco explants by inhibiting auxin-induced expression of the rolB gene

Oligogalacturonides elicit several defense responses and regulate different aspects of growth and development in plants. Many of the development-related effects of oligogalacturonides appear to be amenable to an auxin antagonist activity of these oligosaccharins. To clarify the role of oligogalacturonides in antagonizing auxin, we analyzed their effect on root formation in leaf explants of tobacco harboring the plant oncogene rolB. We show here that oligogalacturonides are capable of inhibiting root morphogenesis driven by rolB in transgenic leaf explants when this process requires exogenous auxin. Because rolB expression is induced by auxin and dramatically alters the response to this hormone in transformed plant cells, the inhibiting effect of oligogalacturonides could be exerted on the induction of rolB and/or at some other auxin-requiring step(s) in rhizogenesis. We show that oligogalacturonides antagonize auxin primarily because they strongly inhibit auxin-regulated transcriptional activation of a rolB-beta-glucuronidase gene fusion in both leaf explants and cultured leaf protoplasts. In contrast, oligogalacturonides do not inhibit rhizogenesis when role transcriptional activation is made independent of auxin, as shown by the lack of inhibition of root formation in leaf explants containing rolB driven by a tetracycline-inducible promoter.