Arabidopsis EF‐Tu receptor enhances bacterial disease resistance in transgenic wheat

Abstract

SummaryPerception of pathogen (or microbe)-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs/MAMPs) by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) is a key component of plant innate immunity. The Arabidopsis PRR EF-Tu receptor (EFR) recognizes the bacterial PAMP elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) and its derived peptide elf18. Previous work revealed that transgenic expression of AtEFR in Solanaceae confers elf18 responsiveness and broad-spectrum bacterial disease resistance.In this study, we developed a set of bioassays to study the activation of PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI) in wheat. We generated transgenic wheat (Triticum aestivum) plants expressing AtEFR driven by the constitutive rice actin promoter and tested their response to elf18.We show that transgenic expression of AtEFR in wheat confers recognition of elf18, as measured by the induction of immune marker genes and callose deposition. When challenged with the cereal bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. oryzae, transgenic EFR wheat lines had reduced lesion size and bacterial multiplication.These results demonstrate that AtEFR can be transferred successfully from dicot to monocot species, further revealing that immune signalling pathways are conserved across these distant phyla. As novel PRRs are identified, their transfer between plant families represents a useful strategy for enhancing resistance to pathogens in crops.

The Ectopic Overexpression of the Cotton Ve1 and Ve2-Homolog Sequences Leads to Resistance Response to Verticillium Wilt in Arabidopsis

“…In addition, many other studies also found that overexpression of RLP genes from cotton by CaMV 35S promoter can significantly enhance the Verticillium wilt resistance in Arabidopsis (Zhang et al, 2011; Chen T. et al, 2015; Yang et al, 2015). Similarity, several resistance genes conferring resistance after overexpression in transgenic lines have been driven by constitutive promoter (Liu et al, 2005; Schoonbeek et al, 2015; Yeh et al, 2015). These results also support by previous findings that the Ve -like gene Gbvdr5 conferred Verticillium wilt resistance in cotton and Arabidopsis transgenic plants (Yang et al, 2015), which only contains a residue divergence in GbaVd2 (Figure S3).…”

Receptor Kinases in Plant-Pathogen Interactions: More Than Pattern Recognition

“…This feature not only helps the identification of PRRs, but also allows deployment of disease resistance by cross-species/genus transfer of PRR-coding genes. Indeed, transgenic overexpression of EFR confers elf18 sensitivity and elevated resistance to cereal bacterial pathogens in rice and wheat (Triticum aestivum) plants, which do not encode EFR (Schwessinger et al, 2015;Schoonbeek et al, 2015).…”

Quantitative, image-based phenotyping methods provide insight into spatial and temporal dimensions of plant disease

“…Elucidating the molecular mechanisms that govern host-microbe interactions has a robust track record of leading to the development of new and effective resistance strategies. For example, plant innate immunity employs several tiers of receptors that, at least in some instances, can be transferred among species (Tai et al, 1999;Zhao et al, 2005;Lacombe et al, 2010;Tripathi et al, 2014;Schoonbeek et al, 2015). Similarly, molecular dissection of the mechanisms used by pathogens to induce susceptibility has led to the development of biotechnology methods for blocking pathogenesis (Li et al, 2012;Strauss et al, 2012;Boch et al, 2014).…”