Deciphering the role of plant plasma membrane lipids in response to invasion patterns: how could biology and biophysics help?

Abstract

Plants have to constantly face pathogen attacks. To cope with diseases, they have to detect as early as possible the invader via the sensing of conserved motifs called invasion patterns (IPs). The first step of perception occurs at the plasma membrane. While many IPs are perceived by specific proteinaceous immune receptors, several studies highlighted the influence of lipid composition and dynamics of the plasma membrane in the sensing of IPs. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on how some microbial IPs could interact with the lipids of the plasma membrane leading to a plant immune response. Depending on the IP, different mechanisms are involved. This review will outline the potential of combining biological with biophysical approaches to decipher how plasma membrane lipids are involved in the perception of microbial IPs.

Dual action of sphinganine in the plant disease resistance to bacteria

“…To investigate this hypothesis, we conducted in silico and in vitro biophysical analyses using membrane plant models. Thanks to their defined structure and controlled lipid composition, these models were found to be useful in understanding how external molecules affect the organization and mechanical properties of the membranes (Deleu et al ., 2014; Furlan et al ., 2020; Cordelier et al ., 2022).…”

Plant Membrane-On-A-Chip: A Platform for Studying Plant Membrane Proteins and Lipids

“…This cell-free approach opens up these biomembranes for many fundamental studies that would be difficult or impossible in planta or with live protoplasts in vitro . The main advantage of this platform is its compatibility with state-of-the-art microscopy and biophysical characterization tools, including surface plasmon resonance, quartz crystal microbalance, and atomic force microscopy, to name a few, that enables the application of these tools to the plant membrane biology field to answer outstanding questions. , This biomimetic platform opens up the possibility for many different kinds of future experiments, for example, extensions to the direct interaction between a pathogen and membrane proteins and lipids can be investigated. , Given recent advances by us and others in merging supported lipid bilayers with conducting polymer surfaces, , we anticipate that it will be possible to extend this approach to directly measure the electrogenic transport as ionic species are translocated across plant membranes, which will open up new ways to conduct fundamental studies of transporter function in a convenient and controlled manner. As such, the platform we present here is a useful stepping stone toward being able to screen many mutants of a protein transporter and generate a functional profile that maps to those mutations.…”

“…8,9 Turning to plants, a recent paper highlights open questions in deciphering the role of plant PM lipids in the immune response to invasion by pathogens and the challenges therein due to the lack of complexity in model systems. 10 Such studies could benefit from the biophysical approaches that have benefitted mammalian systems. Another recent review paper 11 promotes the application of biophysical approaches to plant membrane studies, but notes that while traditional biological techniques are suitable for studying complex systems, they are not easily leveraged for obtaining molecular-level understanding in plants.…”

“…Turning to plants, a recent paper highlights open questions in deciphering the role of plant PM lipids in the immune response to invasion by pathogens and the challenges therein due to the lack of complexity in model systems . Such studies could benefit from the biophysical approaches that have benefitted mammalian systems.…”

The effect of rhamnolipids on fungal membrane models as described by their interactions with phospholipids and sterols: An in silico study

“…Indeed, recent works have reported the key role of sphingolipids in the eliciting action of RLs in plants like A. thaliana ( Schellenberger et al, 2021 ). Not only sphingolipids facilitate the entrance of the RLs in plant membranes (rich on PC in the outer leaflet ( Cordelier et al, 2021 )) but also promote the formation of microdomains ( Yu et al, 2020a ) that would stimulate proteins responsible for the induction of immune response in plants ( Cordelier et al, 2021 ). Even more, sphingolipids promote the incorporation of sterols to these domains ( Yu et al, 2020a ), with important consequences for immune response and other important physiological roles involving protein-protein or protein-lipid interactions ( Yu et al, 2020a ; Cordelier et al, 2021 ).…”