Plants lack the seemingly unlimited receptor diversity of a somatic adaptive immune system as found in vertebrates and rely on only a relatively small set of innate immune receptors to resist a myriad of pathogens. Here, we show that disease-resistant tomato plants use an efficient mechanism to leverage the limited nonself recognition capacity of their innate immune system. We found that the extracellular plant immune receptor protein Cf-2 of the red currant tomato (Solanum pimpinellifolium) has acquired dual resistance specificity by sensing perturbations in a common virulence target of two independently evolved effectors of a fungus and a nematode. The Cf-2 protein, originally identified as a monospecific immune receptor for the leaf mold fungus Cladosporium fulvum, also mediates disease resistance to the root parasitic nematode Globodera rostochiensis pathotype Ro1-Mierenbos. The Cf-2-mediated dual resistance is triggered by effector-induced perturbations of the apoplastic Rcr3 pim protein of S. pimpinellifolium. Binding of the venom allergen-like effector protein Gr-VAP1 of G. rostochiensis to Rcr3 pim perturbs the active site of this papain-like cysteine protease. In the absence of the Cf-2 receptor, Rcr3 pim increases the susceptibility of tomato plants to G. rostochiensis, thus showing its role as a virulence target of these nematodes. Furthermore, both nematode infection and transient expression of Gr-VAP1 in tomato plants harboring Cf-2 and Rcr3 pim trigger a defense-related programmed cell death in plant cells. Our data demonstrate that monitoring host proteins targeted by multiple pathogens broadens the spectrum of disease resistances mediated by single plant immune receptors.parasitism | secretions | SCP/TAPS proteins | hypersensitive response

Inflorescences of the tribe Triticeae, which includes wheat (Triticum sp. L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) are characterized by sessile spikelets directly borne on the main axis, thus forming a branchless spike. ‘Compositum-Barley’ and tetraploid ‘Miracle-Wheat’ (T. turgidum convar. compositum (L.f.) Filat.) display noncanonical spike-branching in which spikelets are replaced by lateral branch-like structures resembling small-sized secondary spikes. As a result of this branch formation ‘Miracle-Wheat’ produces significantly more grains per spike, leading to higher spike yield. In this study, we first isolated the gene underlying spike-branching in ‘Compositum-Barley,’ i.e., compositum 2 (com2). Moreover, we found that COM2 is orthologous to the branched headt (bht) locus regulating spike branching in tetraploid ‘Miracle-Wheat.’ Both genes possess orthologs with similar functions in maize BRANCHED SILKLESS 1 (BD1) and rice FRIZZY PANICLE/BRANCHED FLORETLESS 1 (FZP/BFL1) encoding AP2/ERF transcription factors. Sequence analysis of the bht locus in a collection of mutant and wild-type tetraploid wheat accessions revealed that a single amino acid substitution in the DNA-binding domain gave rise to the domestication of ‘Miracle-Wheat.’ mRNA in situ hybridization, microarray experiments, and independent qRT-PCR validation analyses revealed that the branch repression pathway in barley is governed through the spike architecture gene Six-rowed spike 4 regulating COM2 expression, while HvIDS1 (barley ortholog of maize INDETERMINATE SPIKELET 1) is a putative downstream target of COM2. These findings presented here provide new insights into the genetic basis of spike architecture in Triticeae, and have disclosed new targets for genetic manipulations aiming at boosting wheat’s yield potential.

Viable circadian clocks help organisms to synchronize their development with daily and seasonal changes, thereby providing both evolutionary fitness and advantage from an agricultural perspective. A high-resolution mapping approach combined with mutant analysis revealed a cereal ortholog of Arabidopsis thaliana LUX ARRHYTHMO/PHYTOCLOCK 1 (LUX/PCL1) as a promising candidate for the earliness per se 3 (Eps-3A m ) locus in einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum L.). Using delayed fluorescence measurements it was shown that Eps-3A m containing einkorn wheat accession KT3-5 had a distorted circadian clock. The hypothesis was subsequently confirmed by performing a time course study on central and output circadian clock genes, which showed arrhythmic transcript patterns in KT3-5 under constant ambient conditions, i.e., constant light and temperature. It was also demonstrated that variation in spikelet number between wild-type and mutants is sensitive to temperature, becoming negligible at 25°. These observations lead us to propose that the distorted clock is causative for both early flowering and variation in spike size and spikelet number, and that having a dysfunctional LUX could have neutral, or even positive, effects in warmer climates. To test the latter hypothesis we ascertained sequence variation of LUX in a range of wheat germplasm. We observed a higher variation in the LUX sequence among accessions coming from the warmer climate and a unique in-frame mutation in early-flowering Chinese T. turgidum cultivar 'Tsing Hua no. 559.' Our results emphasize the importance of the circadian clock in temperate cereals as a promising target for adaptation to new environments.T HE circadian clock is an intrinsic regulator of biological processes oscillating within an $24-hr period (Pittendrigh 1993). It is considered to be the main mechanism by which plants recognize the optimal photoperiod for seasonal flowering (Imaizumi 2009). Transcriptional regulation of the circadian clock has been well described in Arabidopsis (Pokhilko et al. 2012) with the latest model emphasizing the importance of the Evening Complex (EC) composed of EARLY FLOWERING 3, EARLY FLOWERING 4, and LUX AR-RHYTHMO/PHYTOCLOCK 1 (ELF3, ELF4, and LUX/PCL1) proteins (Onai and Ishiura 2005;Nusinow et al. 2011;Pokhilko et al. 2012). The EC directly represses the function of PSEUDO RESPONSE REGULATOR 9 (PRR9) and acts antagonistically to the elements expressed in the morning, including LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY) and CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED 1 (CCA1) (Pokhilko et al. 2012). LHY, CCA1, and PRR9 form the so-called morning loop, which becomes arrhythmic when the EC is impaired (Hazen et al. 2005; Dixon et al. 2011; Nusinow Copyright © 2014 Dixon et al. 2011;Pokhilko et al. 2012). Genetic studies have shown that the recently cloned maturity-a, (mat-a; syn. early maturity 8, eam8) locus is an ortholog of AtELF3 in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). eam8 appears to be epistatic to eam10 (syn. ea sp ), which in turn seems to be a possible ortholog of LUX/PCL...

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), a widely cultivated crop, has originated from Eastern Himalayas and secondary domestication regions includes highly divergent climate conditions e.g. temperate and subtropical. We wanted to uncover adaptive genome differences between the cucumber cultivars and what sort of evolutionary molecular mechanisms regulate genetic adaptation of plants to different ecosystems and organism biodiversity. Here we present the draft genome sequence of the Cucumis sativus genome of the North-European Borszczagowski cultivar (line B10) and comparative genomics studies with the known genomes of: C. sativus (Chinese cultivar – Chinese Long (line 9930)), Arabidopsis thaliana, Populus trichocarpa and Oryza sativa. Cucumber genomes show extensive chromosomal rearrangements, distinct differences in quantity of the particular genes (e.g. involved in photosynthesis, respiration, sugar metabolism, chlorophyll degradation, regulation of gene expression, photooxidative stress tolerance, higher non-optimal temperatures tolerance and ammonium ion assimilation) as well as in distributions of abscisic acid-, dehydration- and ethylene-responsive cis-regulatory elements (CREs) in promoters of orthologous group of genes, which lead to the specific adaptation features. Abscisic acid treatment of non-acclimated Arabidopsis and C. sativus seedlings induced moderate freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis but not in C. sativus. This experiment together with analysis of abscisic acid-specific CRE distributions give a clue why C. sativus is much more susceptible to moderate freezing stresses than A. thaliana. Comparative analysis of all the five genomes showed that, each species and/or cultivars has a specific profile of CRE content in promoters of orthologous genes. Our results constitute the substantial and original resource for the basic and applied research on environmental adaptations of plants, which could facilitate creation of new crops with improved growth and yield in divergent conditions.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways regulate signal transduction from different cellular compartments and from the extracellular environment to the nucleus in all eukaryotes. One of the best-characterized MAPKs in Arabidopsis thaliana is MPK4, which was shown to be a negative regulator of systemic-acquired resistance. The mpk4 mutant accumulates salicylic acid (SA), possesses constitutive expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes, and has an extremely dwarf phenotype. We show that suppression of SA and phylloquinone synthesis in chloroplasts by knocking down the ICS1 gene (by crossing it with the ics1 mutant) in the mpk4 mutant background did not revert mpk4-impaired growth. However, it did cause changes in the photosynthetic apparatus and severely impaired the quantum yield of photosystem II. Transmission microscopy analysis revealed that the chloroplasts' structure was strongly altered in the mpk4 and mpk4/ics1 double mutant. Analysis of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging enzymes expression showed that suppression of SA and phylloquinone synthesis in the chloroplasts of the mpk4 mutant caused imbalances in ROS homeostasis which were more pronounced in mpk4/ics1 than in mpk4. Taken together, the presented results strongly suggest that MPK4 is an ROS/hormonal rheostat hub that negatively, in an SA-dependent manner, regulates immune defenses, but at the same time positively regulates photosynthesis, ROS metabolism, and growth. Therefore, we concluded that MPK4 is a complex regulator of chloroplastic retrograde signaling for photosynthesis, growth, and immune defenses in Arabidopsis.