Hormone Signaling and Its Interplay With Development and Defense Responses in Verticillium-Plant Interactions

Abstract

Soilborne plant pathogenic species in the fungal genus Verticillium cause destructive Verticillium wilt disease on economically important crops worldwide. Since R gene-mediated resistance is only effective against race 1 of V. dahliae , fortification of plant basal resistance along with cultural practices are essential to combat Verticillium wilts. Plant hormones involved in cell signaling impact defense responses and development, an understanding of which may provide useful solutions incorporating aspects of basal defense. In this review, we examine the current knowledge of the interplay between plant hormones, salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, ethylene, brassinosteroids, cytokinin, gibberellic acid, auxin, and nitric oxide, and the defense responses and signaling pathways that contribute to resistance and susceptibility in Verticillium -host interactions. Though we make connections where possible to non-model systems, the emphasis is placed on Arabidopsis - V. dahliae and V. longisporum interactions since much of the research on this interplay is focused on these systems. An understanding of hormone signaling in Verticillium -host interactions will help to determine the molecular basis of Verticillium wilt progression in the host and potentially provide insight on alternative approaches for disease management.

Transcriptome Analysis and RNA Interference Reveal GhGDH2 Regulating Cotton Resistance to Verticillium Wilt by JA and SA Signaling Pathways

“…In the black module, several genes related to photosynthesis were identified as hub genes, including 10 chlorophyll a-b binding proteins, two photosystems I reaction center subunit and one photosystem I subunit O, and two photosystems I reaction center subunit (Table 1). These results indicate that the V. dahliae resistance observed in HR may be partly due to its better ability (compared with HS) to slow down growth and to divert more energy to defense, as downregulation of the metabolic pathways related to plant growth and development contributes to plant defense against pathogens (Attaran et al, 2014;Huot et al, 2014;Dhar et al, 2020).…”

“…Previous studies on the interaction between plants and V. dahliae found changes in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis in plants after V. dahliae infection, in particular, the lignin biosynthesis pathway was found to be activated (Xu et al, 2011b;Zhang et al, 2013;Dhar et al, 2020). Inhibition of the expression of the lignin biosynthesis related genes GhHCT1 and GhLac1 enhanced susceptibility of cotton to V. dahliae due to decreased activity of lignin biosynthesis (Guo et al, 2016;Hu et al, 2018).…”

“…Jasmonic acid, SA, and ET are three important signaling molecules crucial for modulating plant defense response to pathogens (Koornneef and Pieterse, 2008), including V. dahliae (Dhar et al, 2020). Recent studies showed that JA signaling pathway positively regulates V. dahliae resistance in cotton (Gao et al, 2013a;Xiong et al, 2019).…”

“…Antagonistic interaction between SA and JA in defense response has been well documented in Arabidopsis (Thaler et al, 2012). Various studies have revealed that both JA and SA positively regulate cotton defense against V. dahliae infection (Shaban et al, 2018;Dhar et al, 2020). However, it is still unclear whether SA and JA have an antagonistic relationship in the process of cotton response to V. dahliae infection.…”

Cotton CC-NBS-LRR Gene GbCNL130 Confers Resistance to Verticillium Wilt Across Different Species

“…Salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) are among the major hormones involved in plant defense response to multiple biotrophic and necrotrophic pathogens ( Yoder and Scholes, 2010 ; Dhar et al, 2020 ). Therefore, we investigated the expression of various genes involved in SA and JA signaling pathways in Arabidopsis upon the ectopic expression of the cotton GbCNL130 .…”