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Arabidopsis abscisic acid receptors play an important role in disease resistance

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Abstract

Stomata are natural pores of plants and constitute the entry points for water during transpiration. However, they also facilitate the ingress of potentially harmful bacterial pathogens. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a pivotal role in protecting plants against biotic stress, by regulating stomatal closure. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism whereby ABA influences plant defense responses to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000, which is a virulent bacterial pathogen of Arabidopsis, at the pre-invasive stage. We found that overexpression of two ABA receptors, namely, RCAR4/PYL10-OX and RCAR5/PYL11-OX (hereafter referred to as RCARs), resulted in ABA-hypersensitive phenotypes being exhibited during the seed germination and seedling growth stages. Sensitivity to ABA enhanced the resistance of RCAR4-OX and RCAR5-OX plants to Pst DC3000, through promoting stomatal closure leading to the development of resistance to this bacterial pathogen. Protein phosphatase HAB1 is an important component that is responsible for ABA signaling and which interacts with ABA receptors. We found that hab1 mutants exhibited enhanced resistance to Pst DC3000; moreover, similar to RCAR4-OX and RCAR5-OX plants, this enhanced resistance was correlated with stomatal closure. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that alteration of RCAR4- or RCAR5-HAB1 mediated ABA signaling influences resistance to bacterial pathogens via stomatal regulation.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

ABI:

ABA-insensitive

AHG:

ABA-hypersensitive germination

AIP:

AKT1 interacting protein phosphatase

AIPH:

AIP1 homologue

BiFC:

Bimolecular fluorescence complementation

cfu:

Colony forming units

HAB:

Hypersensitive to ABA

hpi:

Hours post-inoculation

PAMPs:

Pathogen-associated molecular patterns

PP2C:

Protein phosphatase type 2 C

PRR:

Pattern recognition receptors

Pst :

Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato

PYL:

PYR-like

PYR:

Pyrabactin resistance

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction

RCAR:

Regulatory component of ABA receptor

SOS:

Stomatal opening solution

WT:

Wild-type

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from “the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program for Agriculture and Technology Development (No. PJ01101001)” Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 156-756, Korea

    Chae Woo Lim & Sung Chul Lee

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  1. Chae Woo Lim
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  2. Sung Chul Lee
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Correspondence to Sung Chul Lee.

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Supplementary Fig. 1

ABA-induced inhibition of seedling growth in RCAR4-OX (left) and RCAR5-OX (right) mutants and the WT. The seeds of each plant were germinated and grown in vertical plate containing 0.5 μM ABA. After 9-10 days, the representative images were taken. (PPTX 160 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Interactions of RCAR4 and RCAR5 proteins with the group A type 2C protein phosphatases. A yeast two-hybrid assay of interactions between RCAR4 and RCAR5 with the group A type PP2Cs. Yeast strain AH109 was transformed with RCAR4 and RCAR5 (as bait) cloned into pGBKT7 and 9 PP2Cs (as prey) cloned into a pGADGH vector. Interaction was indicated by growth on selection medium (SC-ALTH) including 0 (top) or 10 μM ABA (middle). Growth on SC-LT was used as a control (bottom). (PPTX 544 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

RT-PCR analysis of RCAR4, RCAR5, and HAB1 gene expression from the leaves of wild-type (Col-0) and transgenic lines (T2). Actin8 gene served as an internal control. The number in parentheses indicates the cycles of PCR. (PPTX 69 kb)

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Lim, C.W., Lee, S.C. Arabidopsis abscisic acid receptors play an important role in disease resistance. Plant Mol Biol 88, 313–324 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-015-0330-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-015-0330-1

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