scholarly journals Regulation of Plant Immunity by Nuclear Membrane-Associated Mechanisms

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiling Fang ◽  
Yangnan Gu

Unlike animals, plants do not have specialized immune cells and lack an adaptive immune system. Instead, plant cells rely on their unique innate immune system to defend against pathogens and coordinate beneficial interactions with commensal and symbiotic microbes. One of the major convergent points for plant immune signaling is the nucleus, where transcriptome reprogramming is initiated to orchestrate defense responses. Mechanisms that regulate selective transport of nuclear signaling cargo and chromatin activity at the nuclear boundary play a pivotal role in immune activation. This review summarizes the current knowledge of how nuclear membrane-associated core protein and protein complexes, including the nuclear pore complex, nuclear transport receptors, and the nucleoskeleton participate in plant innate immune activation and pathogen resistance. We also discuss the role of their functional counterparts in regulating innate immunity in animals and highlight potential common mechanisms that contribute to nuclear membrane-centered immune regulation in higher eukaryotes.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 4214
Author(s):  
Gautam Anand ◽  
Meirav Leibman-Markus ◽  
Dorin Elkabetz ◽  
Maya Bar

Plants lack a circulating adaptive immune system to protect themselves against pathogens. Therefore, they have evolved an innate immune system based upon complicated and efficient defense mechanisms, either constitutive or inducible. Plant defense responses are triggered by elicitors such as microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). These components are recognized by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) which include plant cell surface receptors. Upon recognition, PRRs trigger pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). Ethylene Inducing Xylanase (EIX) is a fungal MAMP protein from the plant-growth-promoting fungi (PGPF)–Trichoderma. It elicits plant defense responses in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), making it an excellent tool in the studies of plant immunity. Xylanases such as EIX are hydrolytic enzymes that act on xylan in hemicellulose. There are two types of xylanases: the endo-1, 4-β-xylanases that hydrolyze within the xylan structure, and the β-d-xylosidases that hydrolyze the ends of the xylan chain. Xylanases are mainly synthesized by fungi and bacteria. Filamentous fungi produce xylanases in high amounts and secrete them in liquid cultures, making them an ideal system for xylanase purification. Here, we describe a method for cost- and yield-effective xylanase production from Trichoderma using wheat bran as a growth substrate. Xylanase produced by this method possessed xylanase activity and immunogenic activity, effectively inducing a hypersensitive response, ethylene biosynthesis, and ROS burst.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 6714
Author(s):  
Gang Pei ◽  
Anca Dorhoi

The innate immune system relies on families of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that detect distinct conserved molecular motifs from microbes to initiate antimicrobial responses. Activation of PRRs triggers a series of signaling cascades, leading to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and antimicrobials, thereby contributing to the early host defense against microbes and regulating adaptive immunity. Additionally, PRRs can detect perturbation of cellular homeostasis caused by pathogens and fine-tune the immune responses. Among PRRs, nucleotide binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors (NLRs) have attracted particular interest in the context of cellular stress-induced inflammation during infection. Recently, mechanistic insights into the monitoring of cellular homeostasis perturbation by NLRs have been provided. We summarize the current knowledge about the disruption of cellular homeostasis by pathogens and focus on NLRs as innate immune sensors for its detection. We highlight the mechanisms employed by various pathogens to elicit cytoskeleton disruption, organelle stress as well as protein translation block, point out exemplary NLRs that guard cellular homeostasis during infection and introduce the concept of stress-associated molecular patterns (SAMPs). We postulate that integration of information about microbial patterns, danger signals, and SAMPs enables the innate immune system with adequate plasticity and precision in elaborating responses to microbes of variable virulence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zane Duxbury ◽  
Chih-hang Wu ◽  
Pingtao Ding

Nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs) play important roles in the innate immune systems of both plants and animals. Recent breakthroughs in NLR biochemistry and biophysics have revolutionized our understanding of how NLR proteins function in plant immunity. In this review, we summarize the latest findings in plant NLR biology and draw direct comparisons to NLRs of animals. We discuss different mechanisms by which NLRs recognize their ligands in plants and animals. The discovery of plant NLR resistosomes that assemble in a comparable way to animal inflammasomes reinforces the striking similarities between the formation of plant and animal NLR complexes. Furthermore, we discuss the mechanisms by which plant NLRs mediate immune responses and draw comparisons to similar mechanisms identified in animals. Finally, we summarize the current knowledge of the complex genetic architecture formed by NLRs in plants and animals and the roles of NLRs beyond pathogen detection. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Plant Biology, Volume 72 is May 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Cells ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry Namgaladze ◽  
Vera Khodzhaeva ◽  
Bernhard Brüne

In cells the interorganelle communication comprises vesicular and non-vesicular mechanisms. Non-vesicular material transfer predominantly takes place at regions of close organelle apposition termed membrane contact sites and is facilitated by a growing number of specialized proteins. Contacts of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria are now recognized to be essential for diverse biological processes such as calcium homeostasis, phospholipid biosynthesis, apoptosis, and autophagy. In addition to these universal roles, ER-mitochondria communication serves also cell type-specific functions. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on ER-mitochondria contacts in cells of the innate immune system, especially in macrophages. We discuss ER- mitochondria communication in the context of macrophage fatty acid metabolism linked to inflammatory and ER stress responses, its roles in apoptotic cell engulfment, activation of the inflammasome, and antiviral defense.


2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (17) ◽  
pp. 5256-5268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Chen ◽  
Michael Clinton ◽  
Guang Qi ◽  
Daowen Wang ◽  
Fengquan Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract As a plant hormone, salicylic acid (SA) plays essential roles in plant defense against biotrophic and hemibiotrophic pathogens. Significant progress has been made in understanding the SA biosynthesis pathways and SA-mediated defense signaling networks in the past two decades. Plant defense responses involve rapid and massive transcriptional reprogramming upon the recognition of pathogens. Plant transcription factors and their co-regulators are critical players in establishing a transcription regulatory network and boosting plant immunity. A multitude of transcription factors and epigenetic regulators have been discovered, and their roles in SA-mediated defense responses have been reported. However, our understanding of plant transcriptional networks is still limited. As such, novel genomic tools and bioinformatic techniques will be necessary if we are to fully understand the mechanisms behind plant immunity. Here, we discuss current knowledge, provide an update on the SA biosynthesis pathway, and describe the transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of SA-mediated plant immune responses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Felix Kraus ◽  
Michael Andreas Gruber

Neutrophils (polymorphonuclear cells; PMNs) form a first line of defense against pathogens and are therefore an important component of the innate immune response. As a result of poorly controlled activation, however, PMNs can also mediate tissue damage in numerous diseases, often by increasing tissue inflammation and injury. According to current knowledge, PMNs are not only part of the pathogenesis of infectious and autoimmune diseases but also of conditions with disturbed tissue homeostasis such as trauma and shock. Scientific advances in the past two decades have changed the role of neutrophils from that of solely immune defense cells to cells that are responsible for the general integrity of the body, even in the absence of pathogens. To better understand PMN function in the human organism, our review outlines the role of PMNs within the innate immune system. This review provides an overview of the migration of PMNs from the vascular compartment to the target tissue as well as their chemotactic processes and illuminates crucial neutrophil immune properties at the site of the lesion. The review is focused on the formation of chemotactic gradients in interaction with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the influence of the ECM on PMN function. In addition, our review summarizes current knowledge about the phenomenon of bidirectional and reverse PMN migration, neutrophil microtubules, and the microtubule organizing center in PMN migration. As a conclusive feature, we review and discuss new findings about neutrophil behavior in cancer environment and tumor tissue.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (34) ◽  
pp. 17090-17095 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Skelly ◽  
Saad I. Malik ◽  
Thierry Le Bihan ◽  
Yuan Bo ◽  
Jihong Jiang ◽  
...  

SUMOylation, the covalent attachment of the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) to target proteins, is emerging as a key modulator of eukaryotic immune function. In plants, a SUMO1/2-dependent process has been proposed to control the deployment of host defense responses. The molecular mechanism underpinning this activity remains to be determined, however. Here we show that increasing nitric oxide levels following pathogen recognition promote S-nitrosylation of the Arabidopsis SUMO E2 enzyme, SCE1, at Cys139. The SUMO-conjugating activities of both SCE1 and its human homolog, UBC9, were inhibited following this modification. Accordingly, mutation of Cys139 resulted in increased levels of SUMO1/2 conjugates, disabled immune responses, and enhanced pathogen susceptibility. Our findings imply that S-nitrosylation of SCE1 at Cys139 enables NO bioactivity to drive immune activation by relieving SUMO1/2-mediated suppression. The control of global SUMOylation is thought to occur predominantly at the level of each substrate via complex local machineries. Our findings uncover a parallel and complementary mechanism by suggesting that total SUMO conjugation may also be regulated directly by SNO formation at SCE1 Cys139. This Cys is evolutionary conserved and specifically S-nitrosylated in UBC9, implying that this immune-related regulatory process might be conserved across phylogenetic kingdoms.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Triantafilou ◽  
Philipp M. Lepper ◽  
Robin Olden ◽  
Ivo de Seabra Rodrigues Dias ◽  
Kathy Triantafilou

In the last twenty years, the general view of the plasma membrane has changed from a homogeneous arrangement of lipids to a mosaic of microdomains. It is currently thought that islands of highly ordered saturated lipids and cholesterol, which are laterally mobile, exist in the plane of the plasma membrane. Lipid rafts are thought to provide a means to explain the spatial segregation of certain signalling pathways emanating from the cell surface. They seem to provide the necessary microenvironment in order for certain specialised signalling events to take place, such as the innate immune recognition. The innate immune system seems to employ germ-lined encoded receptors, called pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), in order to detect pathogens. One family of such receptors are the Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which are the central “sensing” apparatus of the innate immune system. In recent years, it has become apparent that TLRs are recruited into membrane microdomains in response to ligands. These nanoscale assemblies of sphingolipid, cholesterol, and TLRs stabilize and coalesce, forming signalling platforms, which transduce signals that lead to innate immune activation. In the current paper, we will investigate all past and current literature concerning recruitment of extracellular and intracellular TLRs into lipid rafts and how this membrane organization modulates innate immune responses.


2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Bellin ◽  
Shuta Asai ◽  
Massimo Delledonne ◽  
Hirofumi Yoshioka

Sequential recognition of invading microbes and rapid induction of plant immune responses comprise at least two recognition systems. Early basal defenses are initiated by pathogen-associated molecular patterns and pattern recognition receptors (PRR) in the plasma membrane. Pathogens produce effectors to suppress defense but plants, in turn, can sense such effectors by dominant plant resistance (R) gene products. Plant PRR and R proteins modulate signaling networks for defense responses that rely on rapid production of reactive nitrogen species (RNS) and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Recent research has shown that nitric oxide (NO) mainly mediates biological function through chemical reactions between locally controlled accumulation of RNS and proteins leading to potential alteration of protein function. Many proteins specifically regulated by NO and participating in signaling during plant defense response have been identified, highlighting the physiological relevance of these modifications in plant immunity. ROS function independently or in cooperation with NO during defense, modulating the RNS signaling functions through the entire process. This review provides an overview of current knowledge about regulatory mechanisms for NO burst and signaling, and crosstalk with ROS in response to pathogen attack.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 2406
Author(s):  
Luke W. Garratt

Neutrophils are key cells of the innate immune system. It is now understood that this leukocyte population is diverse in both the basal composition and functional plasticity. Underlying this plasticity is a post-translational framework for rapidly achieving early activation states, but also a transcriptional capacity that is becoming increasingly recognized by immunologists. Growing interest in the contribution of neutrophils to health and disease has resulted in more efforts to describe their transcriptional activity. Whilst initial efforts focused predominantly on understanding the existing biology, investigations with advanced methods such as single cell RNA sequencing to understand interactions of the entire immune system are revealing higher flexibility in neutrophil transcription than previously thought possible and multiple transition states. It is now apparent that neutrophils utilise many forms of RNA in the regulation of their function. This review collates current knowledge on the nuclei structure and gene expression activity of human neutrophils across homeostasis and disease, before highlighting knowledge gaps that are research priority areas.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document