scholarly journals Serendipita indica changes host sugar and defense status in Arabidopsis thaliana: cooperation or exploitation?

Planta ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 253 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Opitz ◽  
Roshanak Daneshkhah ◽  
Cindy Lorenz ◽  
Roland Ludwig ◽  
Siegrid Steinkellner ◽  
...  

Abstract Main conclusion Manipulation of sugar metabolism upon S. indica root colonization triggers changes in sugar pools and defense responses in A. thaliana. Abstract Serendipita indica is an endophytic fungus that establishes mutualistic relationships with many different plants including important crops as well as the model plant A. thaliana. Successful root colonization typically results in growth promotion and enhanced tolerance against various biotic and abiotic stresses. The fungus delivers phosphorus to the host and receives in exchange carbohydrates. There are hints that S. indica prefers hexoses, glucose, and fructose, products of saccharose cleavage driven by invertases (INVs) and sucrose synthases (SUSs). Carbohydrate metabolism in this interaction, however, remains still widely unexplored. Therefore, in this work, the sugar pools as well as the expression of SUSs and cytosolic INVs in plants colonized by S. indica were analyzed. Using sus1/2/3/4 and cinv1/2 mutants the importance of these genes for the induction of growth promotion and proper root colonization was demonstrated. Furthermore, the expression of several defense-related marker genes in both multiple mutants in comparison to the wild-type plants was determined. Our results show that in colonized A. thaliana plants S. indica manipulates the sugar metabolism by altering the expression of host’s INV and SUS and modulates both the sugar pools and plant defense in its favor. We conclude that the interaction A. thaliana–S. indica is a balancing act between cooperation and exploitation, in which sugar metabolism plays a crucial role. Small changes in this mechanism can lead to severe disruption resulting in the lack of growth promotion or altered colonization rate.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-339
Author(s):  
Amir G. SHAHRIARI ◽  
Aminallah TAHMASEBI ◽  
Sima SAZEGARI

Salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) phytohormones have been known for their roles in plant defense behaviour against biotic and abiotic stresses. They regulate defense pathways by antagonistic interaction. NPR1 as a key regulatory factor in the cross-talk between SA and JA, signaling is essential for the inhibition of JA-responsive gene expression by SA. In silico promoter analysis of 1.5 kb promoter regions of NPR1 gene revealed that NPR1 contains 23 MYB and 20 WRKY transcription factor binding sites. Different cis-elements associated with various stress responses were identified in Arabidopsis thaliana NPR1. The most common element was allocated to the defense responses against biotic stresses. Based on gene network analysis, NPR1, TGA2 and TGA3 were predicted to have functional cooperation with each other. Affymetrix microarray data analysis of A. thaliana under SA treatment demonstrated that most genes involved in NPR1 network are up-regulated under SA treatment. Therefore, interaction and cooperation between these factors might serve to fine-tune regulation of defense and immune responses against biotic and abiotic stresses.  


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Xiao ◽  
Shanshan Jiang ◽  
Penghui Huang ◽  
Fulu Chen ◽  
Xu Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Starch is synthesized during the day for temporary storage in leaves and then degraded during the subsequent night to support plant growth and development. Impairment of starch degradation leads to stunted growth, even senescence and death. The nuclear pore complex is involved in many cellular processes, but its relationship with starch degradation is unclear until now. We previously identified that two Nucleoporin98 (Nup98) genes (Nup98a and Nup98b) redundantly regulate flowering through CONSTANS (CO) independent pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana. The nup98a-1 nup98b-1 double mutant also shows severe senescence phenotypes. Results: We find that Nucleoporin 98 (Nup98) participates in the regulation of sugar metabolism in leaves and in turn involves in senescence regulation in Arabidopsis. We show that Nup98a and Nup98b redundantly function in the different steps of starch degradation and the nup98a-1 nup98b-1 double mutant accumulates more starch than wild type plants and has a severe early senescence phenotype compared to wild type plants. The expression of marker genes related to starch degradation is impaired in the nup98a-1 nup98b-1 double mutant, and marker genes of carbon starvation and senescence express earlier and in higher abundance in the nup98a-1 nup98b-1 double mutant than in wild type plants, suggesting that abnormality of energy metabolism is the main cause of senescence of the nup98a-1 nup98b-1 double mutant. Addition of sucrose to the growth medium rescues early senescence phenotypes of the nup98a-1 nup98b-1 mutant. Conclusions: Our results provide a line of evidence on a novel role of the nuclear pore complex in energy metabolism related to growth and development, in which Nup98 functions in starch degradation conferring growth regulation in Arabidopsis.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adel Hadj Brahim ◽  
Mouna Jlidi ◽  
Lobna Daoud ◽  
Manel Ben-Ali ◽  
Asmahen Akremi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The use of bioinoculants based on plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) to promote plant growth under biotic and abiotic stresses is in full expansion. To our knowledge much work has not been, thus far, done on seed-biopriming of durum wheat for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. In the present work, we report detailed account of the effectiveness a potent bacterial strain with proven plant growth-promoting ability and antimicrobial activity. The isolate was selected following screening of several bacterial strains isolated from halophytes that grow in a coastal saline soil in Tunisia for their role in enhancing durum wheat tolerance to both salinity stress and head blight disease.Results Accordingly, Bacillus strains MA9, MA14, MA17 and MA19 were found to have PGPB characteristics as they produced indole-3-acetic acid, siderophores and lytic enzymes, fixed free atmospheric nitrogen, and solubilized inorganic phosphate, in vitro . The in vivo study that involved in planta inoculation assays under control (25 mM NaCl) and stress (125 mM NaCl) conditions indicated that all PGPB strains significantly ( P < 0.05) increased the total plant length, dry weight, root area, seed weight, nitrogen, protein and total mineral content. On the other hand, strain MA17 reduced Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) disease incidence in wheat explants by 64.5%, showing that the strain has antifungal activity as was also displayed by in vitro inhibition study.Conclusions Both in vitro and in vivo studies showed that MA9, MA14 MA9, MA14, MA17 and MA19 strains were able to play the PGPB role. Yet, biopriming with Bacillus strain MA17 offered the highest bioprotection against FHB, plant growth promotion, and salinity tolerance. Hence, the MA17 strain should further be evaluated under field condition and formulated for commercial production. Besides, the strain could further be evaluated for its potential role in bioprotection and growth promotion of other crop plants. We believe, the strain has potential to significantly contribute to wheat production in the arid and semi-arid region, especially the salt affected Middle Eastern Region, besides its potential role in improving wheat production under biotic and abiotic stresses in other parts of the world.


Plants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xia Wan ◽  
Lu Peng ◽  
Jie Xiong ◽  
Xiaoyi Li ◽  
Jianmei Wang ◽  
...  

Because they are sessile organisms, plants need rapid and finely tuned signaling pathways to adapt to adverse environments, including salt stress. In this study, we identified a gene named Arabidopsis thaliana stress-induced BTB protein 1 (AtSIBP1), which encodes a nucleus protein with a BTB domain in its C-terminal side and is induced by salt and other stresses. The expression of the β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene driven by the AtSIBP1 promoter was found to be significantly induced in the presence of NaCl. The sibp1 mutant that lost AtSIBP1 function was found to be highly sensitive to salt stress and more vulnerable to salt stress than the wild type WT, while the overexpression of AtSIBP1 transgenic plants exhibited more tolerance to salt stress. According to the DAB staining, the sibp1 mutant accumulated more reactive oxygen species (ROS) than the WT and AtSIBP1 overexpression plants after salt stress. In addition, the expression levels of stress-induced marker genes in AtSIBP1 overexpression plants were markedly higher than those in the WT and sibp1 mutant plants. Therefore, our results demonstrate that AtSIBP1 was a positive regulator in salinity responses in Arabidopsis.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (11) ◽  
pp. 1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwa Drira ◽  
Moez Hanin ◽  
Khaled Masmoudi ◽  
Faiçal Brini

Dehydrins (DHNs) are among the most common proteins accumulated in plants under water-related stress. They typically contain at least three conserved sequences designated as the Y-, S- and K-segments. The present work aims to highlight the role of the K-segments in plant tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. For this purpose, transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heyhn. lines expressing distinct wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) DHN-5 truncated constructs with or without the K-segments were generated. Our results showed that unlike the derivative lacking a K-segment, constructs containing only one or two K-segments enhanced the tolerance of A. thaliana to diverse stresses and were similar to the full-length wheat DHN-5. Moreover, compared with the wild-type and the YS form, the transgenic plants overexpressing wheat DHN-5 with K-segments maintained higher superoxide dismutase, catalase and peroxide dismutase enzymatic activity, and accumulated lower levels of H2O2 and malondialdehyde. In addition, we demonstrated that lines like A. thaliana overexpressing wheat DHN-5 showed increased resistance to fungal infections caused by Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria solani. Finally, the overexpression of the different forms of wheat DHN-5 led to the regulation of the expression of several genes involved in the jasmonic acid signalling pathway.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Ma ◽  
Li-yue Wang ◽  
Jia-xi Dai ◽  
Ying Wang ◽  
Duo Lin

Abstract Background The NAC (NAM, ATAF1/ATAF2, and CUC2) transcription factors belong to a large family of plant-specific transcription factors in monocot and dicot species. These transcription factors regulate the expression of stress tolerance-related genes that protect plants from various abiotic stresses, including drought, salinity, and low temperatures. Results In this study, we identified the CaNAC46 transcription factor gene in Capsicum annuum. Its open reading frame was revealed to comprise 921 bp, encoding a protein consisting of 306 amino acids, with an isoelectric point of 6.96. A phylogenetic analysis indicated that CaNAC46 belongs to the ATAF subfamily. The expression of CaNAC46 was induced by heat, cold, high salt, drought, abscisic acid, salicylic acid, and methyl jasmonate treatments. Thus, CaNAC46 may be important for the resistance of dry pepper to abiotic stresses. A subcellular localization analysis confirmed that CaNAC46 is localized in the nucleus. The overexpression of CaNAC46 improved the tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants to drought and salt stresses. The CaNAC46-overexpressing lines had longer roots and more lateral roots than wild-type lines under prolonged drought and high salt stress conditions. Additionally, CaNAC46 affected the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Moreover, CaNAC46 promoted the expression of SOD, POD, RD29B, RD20, LDB18, ABI, IAA4, and P5CS. The malondialdehyde contents were higher in TRV2-CaNAC46 lines than in wild-type plants in response to drought and salt stresses. Furthermore, the expression levels of stress-responsive genes, such as ABA2, P5CS, DREB, RD22, CAT, and POD, were down-regulated in TRV2-CaNAC46 plants. Conclusions Under saline and drought conditions, CaNAC46 is a positive regulator that activates ROS-scavenging enzymes and enhances root formation. The results of our study indicate CaNAC46 is a transcriptional regulator responsible for salinity and drought tolerance and suggest the abiotic stress-related gene regulatory mechanisms controlling this NAC transcription factor are conserved between A. thaliana and pepper.


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