Abstract

Plants react to pathogen attack via recognition of, and response to, pathogen-specific molecules at the cell surface and inside the cell. Pathogen effectors (virulence factors) are monitored by intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) sensor proteins in plants and mammals. Here, we study the genetic requirements for defense responses of an autoactive mutant of ADR1-L2, an Arabidopsis coiled-coil (CC)-NB-LRR protein. ADR1-L2 functions upstream of salicylic acid (SA) accumulation in several defense contexts, and it can act in this context as a “helper” to transduce specific microbial activation signals from “sensor” NB-LRRs. This helper activity does not require an intact P-loop. ADR1-L2 and another of two closely related members of this small NB-LRR family are also required for propagation of unregulated runaway cell death (rcd) in an lsd1 mutant. We demonstrate here that, in this particular context, ADR1-L2 function is P-loop dependent. We generated an autoactive missense mutation, ADR1-L2D484V, in a small homology motif termed MHD. Expression of ADR1-L2D848V leads to dwarfed plants that exhibit increased disease resistance and constitutively high SA levels. The morphological phenotype also requires an intact P-loop, suggesting that these ADR1-L2D484V phenotypes reflect canonical activation of this NB-LRR protein. We used ADR1-L2D484V to define genetic requirements for signaling. Signaling from ADR1-L2D484V does not require NADPH oxidase and is negatively regulated by EDS1 and AtMC1. Transcriptional regulation of ADR1-L2D484V is correlated with its phenotypic outputs; these outputs are both SA–dependent and –independent. The genetic requirements for ADR1-L2D484V activity resemble those that regulate an SA–gradient-dependent signal amplification of defense and cell death signaling initially observed in the absence of LSD1. Importantly, ADR1-L2D484V autoactivation signaling is controlled by both EDS1 and SA in separable, but linked pathways. These data allows us to propose a genetic model that provides insight into an SA–dependent feedback regulation loop, which, surprisingly, includes ADR1-L2.

Highlights

  • Plants encounter a wide variety of pathogens

  • Present understanding of these resistance proteins likens them to molecular switches that bind nucleotides to activate disease resistance responses

  • It was shown that Activated Disease Resistance 1-like 2 (ADR1-L2), a plant disease resistance protein, is important in the immune response, but can function in the contexts analysed independently of what is currently considered the canonical nucleotide switch activation

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Summary

Introduction

Plants encounter a wide variety of pathogens. Plants rely on their organ surfaces as pre-formed barriers to infection. Plants have evolved an active, two-layered immune system [1]. The first branch utilizes transmembrane receptors (PRRs, or pattern recognition receptors) which detect microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) of various pathogens [2]. MAMP detection elicits a rapid, relatively lowamplitude host transcriptional response resulting in MAMPtriggered immunity (MTI) which is sufficient to halt growth of many microbes [1,3]. Successful pathogens can suppress or delay MTI via delivery of effector molecules into host cells. Effectors are typically virulence proteins [4]. Gram-negative bacterial pathogens deliver effectors via injection into the plant cell by the Type

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