Ectopic expression of disease resistance protein promotes resistance against pathogen infection and drought stress in Arabidopsis

Abstract

Plant-pathogen interaction is co-evolving and results in developed resistance in both the host and invader. Plants being sessile cannot physically escape from the pathogens and thus are armored with defense strategies resulting in neutralizing the pest effects. Resistance (R) genes in plants elicit a robust defense by synthesizing their protein products against pathogen effectors. Primarily, the expressions of R genes are tightly regulated by multiple surveillance mechanism(s). A less explored R gene of Arabidopsis thaliana, AT5G51630 (disease related protein; DRP), confers resistance against bacterial pathogen. When over-expressed, the DRP localizes in the cytoplasm and the Arabidopsis with ectopic expression of DRP exhibits delayed flowering phenotype aligning with the fact that immunity costs growth. The over-expression of the DRP in Arabidopsis thaliana results in enhanced immunity, primarily by modulating the basal immunity, as evident from the early activation of pathogenesis-related protein 1 (PR1) relative to the wild-type. Here we demonstrate that the engineered transgenic plant not only offers resistance against the Pseudomonas syringae but also favors the plant during drought stress.