The nuclear ubiquitin proteasome degradation affects WRKY45 function in the rice defense program

The transcriptional activator WRKY45 plays a major role in the salicylic acid/benzothiadiazole-induced defense program in rice. Here, we show that the nuclear ubiquitin–proteasome system (UPS) plays a role in regulating the function of WRKY45. Proteasome inhibitors induced accumulation of polyubiquitinated WRKY45 and transient up-regulation of WRKY45 target genes in rice cells, suggesting that WRKY45 is con-stantly degraded by the UPS to suppress defense responses in the absence of defense signals. Mutational analysis of the nuclear localization signal indicated that UPS-dependent WRKY45 degradation occurs in the nuclei. Interestingly, the transcriptional activity of WRKY45 after salicylic acid treatment was impaired by proteasome inhibition. The same C-terminal region in WRKY45 was essential for both transcriptional activity and UPS-dependent degradation. These results suggest that UPS regulation also plays a role in the tran-scriptional activity of WRKY45. It has been reported that AtNPR1, the central regulator of the salicylic acid pathway in Arabidopsis, is regulated by the UPS. We found that OsNPR1/NH1, the rice counterpart of NPR1, was not stabilized by proteasome inhibition under uninfected conditions. We discuss the differences in post-translational regulation of salicylic acid pathway components between rice and Arabidopsis