JASMONATE-INDUCED PROTEINS IN COTTON - IMMUNOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP TO THE RESPECTIVE BARLEY PROTEINS AND HOMOLOGY OF TRANSCRIPTS TO LATE EMBRYOGENESIS ABUNDANT (LEA) MESSENGER-RNAS

(-)-Jasmonic acid methyl ester (Ja-Me) causes a drastic alteration of gene expression in excised cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cotyledons. After in vivo labeling with L-[S-35] methionine, soluble proteins of J a-Me-treated cotyledonary segments were analyzed by two-dimensional po lyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Several different classes of polypep tides were observed, corresponding to molecular sizes of Mr 67, 40, 35 , 30, 25, 23, 20, 18 kDa, which were absent in water-treated (control) segments. Western-blot analysis with antibodies raised against 66, 37 , and 23 kDa jasmonate-induced proteins (JIPs) of barley (Herrmann et al. 1989) revealed that only the 23 kDa JIPs of cotton are immunologic ally related to those of barley. The Ja-Me-induced alteration in the p rotein pattern correlated with the appearance of novel in vitro transl atable mRNAs which accumulated transiently or steadily during the incu bation period. Three of the Ja-Me-induced mRNAs hybridized with a synt hetic oligonucleotide probe that was complementary to a highly conserv ed sequence motif found in the cotton Lea (late embryogenesis abundant ) gD-7 gene (Baker et al. 1988) and in some other Lea genes (Dure et a l. 1989). The level of the 2.17, 1.46, and 0.71 kb transcripts detecte d at a melting temperature (Tm) -15-degrees-C criterion did not change significantly in the water-control cotyledons, but they increased thr ee- to fourfold in jasmonate-treated cotyledons.