Salmonella virulence in animals depends on effectors injected by Type III Secretion Systems (T3SSs). In this report we demonstrate that Salmonella mutants that are unable to deliver effectors are also compromised in infection of Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Transcriptome analysis revealed that in contrast to wild type bacteria, T3SS mutants of Salmonella are compromised in suppressing highly conserved Arabidopsis genes that play a prominent role during Salmonella infection of animals. We also found that Salmonella originating from infected plants are equally virulent for human cells and mice. These results indicate a high degree of conservation in the defense and infection mechanism of animal and plant hosts during Salmonella infection.

SUMMARYMembrane-delimited events play a crucial role for ABA signaling and PYR/PYL/RCAR ABA receptors, clade A PP2Cs and SnRK2/CPK kinases modulate the activity of different plasma membrane components involved in ABA action. Therefore, the turnover of PYR/PYL/RCARs in the proximity of plasma membrane might be a step that affects receptor function and downstream signaling. In this study we describe a single-subunit RING-type E3 ubiquitin ligase RSL1 that interacts with the PYL4 and PYR1 ABA receptors at the plasma membrane. Overexpression of RSL1 reduces ABA sensitivity and rsl1 RNAi lines that impair expression of several members of the RSL1/RFA gene family show enhanced sensitivity to ABA. RSL1 bears a C-terminal transmembrane domain that targets the E3 ligase to plasma membrane. Accordingly, bimolecular fluorescent complementation (BiFC) studies showed the RSL1-PYL4 and RSL1-PYR1 interaction is localized to plasma membrane. RSL1 promoted PYL4 and PYR1 degradation in vivo and mediated in vitro ubiquitylation of the receptors. Taken together, these results suggest ubiquitylation of ABA receptors at plasma membrane is a process that might affect their function via effect on their half-life, protein interactions or trafficking.

Seed longevity is crucial for agriculture and plant genetic diversity, but it is limited by cellular damage during storage. Seeds are protected against aging by cellular defenses and by structures such as the seed coat. We have screened an activation-tagging mutant collection of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and selected four dominant mutants with improved seed longevity (isl1-1D to isl4-1D) under both natural and accelerated aging conditions. In the isl1-1D mutant, characterized in this work, overexpression of the transcription factor ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA HOMEOBOX25 (ATHB25; At5g65410) increases the expression of GIBBERELLIC ACID3-OXIDASE2, encoding a gibberellin (GA) biosynthetic enzyme, and the levels of GA 1 and GA 4 are higher (3.2-and 1.4-fold, respectively) in the mutant than in the wild type. The morphological and seed longevity phenotypes of the athb25-1D mutant were recapitulated in transgenic plants with moderate (4-to 6-fold) overexpression of ATHB25. Simultaneous knockdown of ATHB25, ATHB22, and ATHB31 expression decreases seed longevity, as does loss of ATHB25 and ATHB22 function in a double mutant line. Seeds from wild-type plants treated with GA and from a quintuple DELLA mutant (with constitutive GA signaling) are more tolerant to aging, providing additional evidence for a role of GA in seed longevity. A correlation was observed in several genotypes between seed longevity and mucilage formation at the seed surface, suggesting that GA may act by reinforcing the seed coat. This mechanism was supported by the observation of a maternal effect in reciprocal crosses between the wild type and the athb25-1D mutant.