B. Zahirnejad - Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Islamic Republic of Iran.
B. Bahramnejad - Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture,University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
J. Rostamzadeh - Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Islamic Republic of Iran.

Plant defensins are the cysteine-rich peptides that are encoded by small multi-gene families in the plant kingdom. In this study, we designed primers based on conserved regions of defensin genes to clone and identify defensin genes in strawberry (Fragaria×ananassa cv. Paros) by reverse transcription PCR technique. Sequence analysis showed that the deduced amino acid had significant similarity to other plant defensins from NCBI database and designated FaDef۱. The predicted strawberry defensin protein encodes a ۵۴ aa protein of ۶.۱۸ kDa, pI ۹.۲۲ and eight conserved cysteine residues with desired space conservation with other amino acids. Semi quantitative expressions of FaDef۱ were analyzed in root, stem, leaf, flower, and fruit in three strawberry cultivars, namely, Queenelisa, Camarosa, and Paros. The results showed that the FaDef۱ expression patterns were similar in different tissues of the three cultivars. The higher amount of relative expression of FaDef۱ was in fruit and there was no observable expression in the root. The expression of FaDef۱ increased after wounding and salicylic acid treatment. The expression level was higher in developed fruits compared to that of immature fruits. In fruits infected with the Gray mold agent (Botrytis cinerea), the expression of FaDef۱ showed significant increase by development of disease symptom. Taken together, these results suggest that FaDef۱ is both responsive to biotic stress signal compounds and strawberry B. cinerea and may be used as a candidate gene for engineering plants against gray mold.

Gray mold, Pathogenesis related proteins, Resistance to stress, RT-PCR, strawberry., بیان ژن, دفنسین و Fragaria×ananassa