Abstract
The impact of fungal diseases on crop production negatively reflects on sustainable food production and overall economic health. Ergosterol is the major sterol component in fungal membranes and regarded as a general elicitor or microbe-associated molecular pattern (MAMP) molecule. Although plant responses to ergosterol have been reported, the perception mechanism is still unknown. Here, Arabidopsis thaliana protein fractions were used to identify those differentially regulated following ergosterol treatment; additionally, they were subjected to affinity-based chromatography enrichment strategies to capture and categorize ergosterol-interacting candidate proteins using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Mature plants were treated with 250 nM ergosterol over a 24 h period, and plasma membrane-associated fractions were isolated. In addition, ergosterol was immobilized on two different affinity-based systems to capture interacting proteins/complexes. This resulted in the identification of defense-related proteins such as chitin elicitor receptor kinase (CERK), non-race specific disease resistance/harpin-induced (NDR1/HIN1)-like protein, Ras-related proteins, aquaporins, remorin protein, leucine-rich repeat (LRR)- receptor like kinases (RLKs), G-type lectin S-receptor-like serine/threonine-protein kinase (GsSRK), and glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored protein. Furthermore, the results elucidated unknown signaling responses to this MAMP, including endocytosis, and other similarities to those previously reported for bacterial flagellin, lipopolysaccharides, and fungal chitin.
Highlights
Plants lack an adaptive immune system and solely depend on a multi-complex innate immunity to defend themselves
This marks the second line of defense, known as effector-triggered immunity (ETI), where these effectors are recognized by intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) proteins [4,5,6]
We describe the use of proteomic approaches to identify differentially regulated plasma membrane-associated proteins following ergosterol treatment, as well as subsequent affinity-based chromatographic strategies of the said fraction to capture and enrich ergosterol-interacting candidate proteins so as to shed light on the unknown perception mechanism(s)
Summary
Plants lack an adaptive immune system and solely depend on a multi-complex innate immunity to defend themselves. The first line of defense occurs on the plant cell surface, where membrane-bound pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) recognize conserved motifs within microbes. These microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) are typically essential components for microorganism functioning and include the bacterial flagellin epitope, flg. Due to the co-evolution of both microbes and host, several organisms have the ability to suppress MTI components by releasing virulent molecules called effectors, which leads to effector-triggered susceptibility (ETS) This marks the second line of defense, known as effector-triggered immunity (ETI), where these effectors are recognized by intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) proteins [4,5,6]. General cellular events associated with MTI and ETI include changes in cytoplasmic Ca2+ levels, activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades, bursts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO), deposition of callose to reinforce the cell wall, production of anti-microbial compounds such as phytoalexins, and often, localized cell death [4,7,8,9,10]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
