Two novel mitogen-activated protein signaling components, OsMEK1 and OsMAP1, are involved in a moderate low-temperature signaling pathway in rice.

Rice (Oryza sativa) anther development is easily damaged by moderately low temperatures above 12 degrees C. Subtractive screening of cDNA that accumulated in 12 degrees C-treated anthers identified a cDNA clone, OsMEK1, encoding a protein with features characteristic of a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase kinase. The putative OsMEK1 protein shows 92% identity to the maize (Zea mays) MEK homolog, ZmMEK1. OsMEK1 transcript levels were induced in rice anthers by 12 degrees C treatment for 48 h. Similar OsMEK1 induction was observed in shoots and roots of seedlings that were treated at 12 degrees C for up to 24 h. It is interesting that no induction of OsMEK1 transcripts was observed in 4 degrees C-treated seedlings. In contrast, rice lip19, encoding a bZIP protein possibly involved in low temperature signal transduction, was not induced by 12 degrees C treatment but was induced by 4 degrees C treatment. Among the three MAP kinase homologs cloned, only OsMAP1 displayed similar 12 degrees C-specific induction pattern as OsMEK1. A yeast two-hybrid system revealed that OsMEK1 interacts with OsMAP1, but not with OsMAP2 and OsMAP3, suggesting that OsMEK1 and OsMAP1 probably function in the same signaling pathway. An in-gel assay of protein kinase activity revealed that a protein kinase (approximately 43 kD), which preferentially uses myelin basic protein as a substrate, was activated by 12 degrees C treatment but not by 4 degrees C treatment. Taken together, these results lead us to conclude that at least two signaling pathways for low temperature stress exist in rice, and that a MAP kinase pathway with OsMEK1 and OsMAP1 components is possibly involved in the signaling for the higher range low-temperature stress.