Plant ferredoxin-like protein enhances resistance to bacterial soft rot disease through PAMP-triggered immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

The protection of plants against bacterial disease is one of the important issues that need to be studied in agricultural applications. The application of a transgene, such as a gene that encodes plant ferredoxin-like protein (PFLP), to generate resistant plants is one possible strategy. Our previous reports have demonstrated that transgenic plants that express extracellular PFLP (ESF plants) are more resistant to bacterial pathogens. This protein intensifies the hypersensitive response (HR) in plants when they are infiltrated by a pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP), harpin (HrpZ), from Pseudomonas syringae. In addition, this intensified HR is associated with the expression of membrane-bound NADPH oxidase. Thus, we attempted to determine the involvement of PFLP in intensifying PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI) to enhance disease resistance. First, we showed that transgenic Arabidopsis plants with the pflp gene were resistant to bacterial soft rot caused by Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum (Pcc). Then, the fliC gene which encoded flagellin from Pcc was cloned and expressed. The FliC protein was used in the functional study with PFLP in Arabidopsis Col-0 plants. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and HR ratio were induced by the treatment with both PFLP and FliC together, but they were not induced by treatment with PFLP or FliC alone. Similar results were confirmed in ESF plants, where FliC elicited rapid ROS accumulation and callose deposition. Moreover, we demonstrated that the PFLP-intensified ROS generation and HR were related to Ca2+ influx and activation of NADPH oxidase. We concluded that the PFLP-intensified disease resistance is associated with the intensification of PAMP-triggered immunity.