Recent Advances in Understanding the Function of the PGIP Gene and the Research of Its Proteins for the Disease Resistance of Plants

Polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein (PGIP) is an important plant biochemical anti-disease factor. PGIP has a leucine-rich repeat structure that can selectively bind and inhibit the activity of endo-polygalacturonase (endo-PG) in fungi, playing a key role in plant disease resistance. The regulation of PGIP in plant disease resistance has been well studied, and the effect of PGIP to increase disease resistance is clear. This review summarizes recent advances in understanding the PGIP protein structure, the PGIP mechanism of plant disease resistance, and anti-disease activity by PGIP gene transfer. This overview should contribute to a better understanding of PGIP function and can help guide resistance breeding of PGIP for anti-disease effects.

Engineering of Polygalacturonase-Inhibiting Protein as an Ecological, Friendly, and Non-toxic Pest Control Agent

Fungal pathogens cause extensive plant diseases that damage crop production in the agricultural industry, resulting in annual crop loss, diminished food security, and historically significant epidemics. Though effective fungicides are available, their risks to the environment and animal health have increased the demand for more sustainable methods to control fungal pathogens. In plants, polygalacturonic-inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) play critical roles for resistance to fungal disease by inhibiting the pectin-depolymerizing activity of endopolygalacturonases (PGs), one type of enzyme secreted by pathogens that compromise plant cell walls and leave the plant susceptible to disease. Here, the interactions between PGIPs from Phaseolus vulgaris (PvPGIP1 and PvPGIP2) and PGs from Aspergillus niger (AnPG2), Botrytis cinerea (BcPG1, BcPG2), and Fusarium moniliforme (FmPG3) were reconstituted through a yeast two hybrid (Y2H) system to investigate the inhibition efficiency of various PvPGIP1 and 2 truncations and mutants. We found that tPvPGIP2_5-8, which contains LRR5 to LRR8 and is of only one-third the size of the full-length peptide, exhibits the same level of interactions with AnPG and BcPGs as the full length PvPGIP2 via Y2H. The inhibitory activities of tPvPGIP2_5-8 on the growth of A. niger were then examined and confirmed on pectin agar. Application of both full length PvPGIP2 and tPvPGIP2_5-8 clearly slows down the growth of A. niger and B. cinerea in the presence of pectin. The investigation on the sequence-function correlation of PvPGIP2 suggests that LRR5 could have the most essential structural feature for the inhibitory activities, and may be a possible target for the future engineering of PGIP with enhanced activity. This work highlights the potential of using plant-derived PGIPs as an exogenously applied fungal control agent both to plants and postharvest crops while minimally impacting the environment and human health.

ZmPGIP3 Gene Encodes a Polygalacturonase-Inhibiting Protein that Enhances Resistance to Sheath Blight in Rice

Plant polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein (PGIP) is a structural protein that can specifically recognize and bind to fungal polygalacturonase (PG). PGIP plays an important role in plant antifungal activity. In this study, a maize PGIP gene, namely ZmPGIP3, was cloned and characterized. Agarose diffusion assay suggested that ZmPGIP3 could inhibit the activity of PG. ZmPGIP3 expression was significantly induced by wounding, Rhizoctonia solani infection, jasmonate, and salicylic acid. ZmPGIP3 might be related to disease resistance. The gene encoding ZmPGIP3 was posed under the control of the ubiquitin promoter and constitutively expressed in transgenic rice. In an R. solani infection assay, ZmPGIP3 transgenic rice was more resistant to sheath blight than the wild-type rice regardless of the inoculated plant part (leaves or sheaths). Digital gene expression analysis indicated that the expression of some rice PGIP genes significantly increased in ZmPGIP3 transgenic rice, suggesting that ZmPGIP3 might activate the expression of some rice PGIP genes to resist sheath blight. Our investigation of the agronomic traits of ZmPGIP3 transgenic rice showed that ZmPGIP3 overexpression in rice did not show any detrimental phenotypic or agronomic effect. ZmPGIP3 is a promising candidate gene in the transgenic breeding for sheath blight resistance and crop improvement.

Characterization of two closely linked soybean pgip genes and transcript regulation following pathogen infection and wounding

Polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein (PGIP) is a plant cell wall protein that regulates the action of fungal endopolygalacturonases (PG) favouring the formation of oligogalacturonides active as elicitors of plant defense responses. We have isolated two novel soybean PGIP genes (Gmpgip1 and Gmpgip2) and their recognition specificities against fungal PGs have been tested by expressing them in Nicotiana benthamiana using the Potato virus X (PVX) as vector and in Escherichia coli. In both systems GmPGIP1 and GmPGIP2 accumulate but showed no activity against PGs. Transcript regulation of GmPGIP1 and GmPGIP2 showed that these genes undergo a differential regulation following Sclerotinia sclerotiorum infection and wounding.