A lesion mimic phenotype in tomato obtained by isolating and silencing an Lls1 homologue

Lesion mimic phenotypes serve as a tool to study the regulation of cell death in plants. In order to obtain a tomato lesion mimic phenotype, we used the conservation of the lethal leaf spot 1 (Lls1) genes between plant species. The tomato Lls1 homologue was cloned, sequenced and analyzed. It showed high conservation at the protein and nucleotide level compared to the genes from maize and Arabidopsis. Using virus induced gene silencing, we obtained a phenotype resembling the lls1 mutant in maize. Lesion formation, lesion spreading and light dependence of the tomato lls1 phenotype are strong indications for the functional conservation of the Lls1 gene between the dicotyledonous tomato and the monocotyledonous maize.