Dielectric characteristics of Ba(Fe1∕2Nb1∕2)O3 ceramics were investigated over a broad temperature and a frequency range. Two dielectric relaxations following Arrhenius law were observed at 150–400 and 406–650K. An extremely high relaxorlike dielectric peak (202 270 at 5Hz, 91 930 at 1kHz, and 37 030 at 100kHz) with very strong frequency dispersion was observed at 406–650K, and it was not relaxor ferroelectric but an oxygen defect induced dielectric abnormity. The significant drop of dielectric constant at 146–400K was also frequency dependent, and it was nearly a Debye relaxation. Between these two dielectric relaxations, there was a frequency dependent dielectric constant plateau over a wide temperature interval.

WRKY family proteins are a class of plant specific transcription factors that involve in many stress response pathways. It has been shown that one Arabidopsis WRKY protein, AtWRKY29/22, is activated by MAP kinase signaling cascade and confers resistance to both bacterial and fungal pathogens. However, little is known about the biological roles of WRKY proteins in rice. In this study, we investigated the expression patterns of rice AtWRKY29/22 homolog, OsWRKY03, under different conditions, and also its possible role involved in plant defense. Our results showed that OsWRKY03 was up-regulated by several defense signaling molecules or different treatments. Further analysis revealed that the expression of OsWRKY03 was light dependent. Transcriptional activation activity of OsWRKY03 was also demonstrated by yeast functional assay. Transient expression of OsWRKY03-GFP fusion protein in onion epidermis cells showed that OsWRKY03 was a nuclear localized protein. OsNPR1 as well as several other pathogenesis-related genes, such as OsPR1b, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (ZB8) and peroxidase (POX22.3), were induced in OsWRKY03-overexpressing transgenic plants. These results indicated that OsWRKY03 is located upstream of OsNPR1 as a transcriptional activator in salicylic acid (SA)-dependent or jasmonic acid (JA)-dependent defense signaling cascades.

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