Induction of tobacco genes in response to oligochitosan.

Oligochitosan has a variety of biological activities. To understand its mechanism, DDRT-PCR, reverse Northern blot and quantitative relative RT-PCR were used to identify and isolate genes whose transcription were altered in cultured Nicotiana tabacum (var. Samsun NN) plants that were treated with oligochitosan. Three genes whose mRNA levels significantly changed in response to oligochitosan were isolated and identified. One gene is up-regulated, and two genes are down-regulated. These genes encode a DNAJ heat shock N-terminal domain-containing protein, a histone H1 gene and a hypothetical protein, whose function is unknown. The results suggest that the usefulness of mRNA differential display technique for the detection of plant metabolic pathways affected by oligochitosan.