Vascular tissue-specific gene expression of xylem sap glycine-rich proteins in root and their localization in the walls of metaxylem vessels in cucumber

Root-specific cDNAs of glycine-rich protein (cucumber root glycine rich protein-1 and -2; CRGRP-1 and CRGRP-2) were cloned previously by use of an antiserum raised against whole xylem sap of Cucumis sativus. The accumulation of the corresponding mRNA at high levels was detected in the root-hair zone of cucumber tap root Sakuta et al. (1998) Plant Cell Physiol. 39: 1330]. The RNA gel blot analysis with the CRGRP-1- and -2-specific probes revealed that the CRGRP genes expressed only in root but not at all in aboveground organs. When the localization of these mRNAs were examined by in situ hybridization, CRGRP mRNAs were found only in the parenchyma cells in the central cylinder of young lateral roots and it was most abundant in the cells that surrounded xylem vessels in the root-hair zone of the tap root. In immunoblotting of xylem sap collected from cucumber stem with an antiserum raised against CRGRP-1 that had been produced in an E. coli expression system, the antibodies, which did not cross-react with GRP1.8 of kidney bean, reacted with two proteins, whose mobilities corresponded to those of proteins deduced from the CRGRP-1 and -2 cDNAs. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that the CRGRPs accumulated specifically in the lignified walls of metaxylem vessels in the root, stem and leaf and in the lignified cell walls of perivascular fibers in cucumber stems. Immunostaining was also detected in the walls of metaxylem vessels and in the cell walls of adjacent sclerenchyma in the hypocotyl of kidney bean. These data clearly indicate that the novel glycine-rich proteins were produced in the vascular tissue of the root, transported systemically over a long distance via the xylem sap and immobilized in the walls of metaxylem vessels and sclerechyma cells in aboveground organs.