Abstract
Key messageTransgenicNicotiana benthamianalines with constitutive expression of an Arabidopsis lectin receptor kinase gene (LecRK-I.9orLecRK-IX.1) show enhanced resistance toPhytophthorapathogens, demonstrating conserved gene functionality after interfamily transfer.In plants, cell surface receptors mediate the first layer of innate immunity against pathogenic microbes. In Arabidopsis several L-type lectin receptor kinases (LecRKs) were previously found to function as Phytophthora resistance components. In this study, we determined the functionality of Arabidopsis LecRK-I.9 or LecRK-IX.1 in Phytophthora resistance when transferred into the Solanaceous plant Nicotiana benthamiana. Multiple transgenic lines were generated for each LecRK gene and molecular analyses revealed variation in transgene copy number, transgene expression levels and LecRK protein accumulation. Infection assays showed that transgenic N. benthamiana plants expressing either Arabidopsis LecRK-I.9 or LecRK-IX.1 are more resistant to Phytophthora capsici and to Phytophthora infestans. These results demonstrate that Arabidopsis LecRK-I.9 and LecRK-IX.1 retained their Phytophthora resistance function when transferred into N. benthamiana. Therefore, these LecRKs have the potential to function as a complementary Phytophthora resistance resource in distantly related plant species next to the canonical Phytophthora resistance genes encoding nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat proteins.
Highlights
Plant diseases caused by Phytophthora species are widespread and cause enormous economic losses on a large variety of crops (Tyler 2007; Fry 2008; Lamour et al 2012)
We first determined whether AtLecRK-I.9 and AtLecRK-IX.1 were successfully transferred into N. benthamiana by PCR using gene-specific primers (Fig. 2a)
Ectopic expression of either AtLecRK-I.9 or AtLecRK-IX.1 in N. benthamiana increased the resistance to different Phytophthora species
Summary
Plant diseases caused by Phytophthora species are widespread and cause enormous economic losses on a large variety of crops (Tyler 2007; Fry 2008; Lamour et al 2012). Breeding programs are mainly focused on the exploitation of resistance (R) genes that encode intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins to restrict Phytophthora pathogens (Vleeshouwers et al 2011). These attempts are often hampered by the quick adaptation of Phytophthora pathogens that leads to evasion of the R-gene mediated recognition (Fry 2008; Vleeshouwers et al 2011; Rodewald and Trognitz 2013)
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