Pathogen Tactics to Manipulate Plant Cell Death.

Cell death is a vital process for multicellular organisms. Programmed cell death (PCD) functions in a variety of processes including growth, development, and immune responses for homeostasis maintenance. In particular, plants and animals utilize PCD to control pathogen invasion and infected cell populations. Despite some similarity, there are a number of key differences between how these organisms initiate and regulate cell death. In contrast to animals, plants are sessile, lack a circulatory system, and have additional cellular structures, including cell walls and chloroplasts. Plant cells have the autonomous ability to induce localized cell death using conserved eukaryotic pathways as well as unique plant-specific pathways. Thus, in order to successfully infect host cells, pathogens must subvert immune responses and avoid detection to prevent PCD and allow infection. Here we discuss the roles of cell death in plant immune responses and the tactics pathogens utilize to avert cell death.

Epigenetic memory for stress response and adaptation in plants.

In contrast to the majority of animal species, plants are sessile organisms and are, therefore, constantly challenged by environmental perturbations. Over the past few decades, our knowledge of how plants perceive environmental stimuli has increased considerably, e.g. the mechanisms for transducing environmental stress stimuli into cellular signaling cascades and gene transcription networks. In addition, it has recently been shown that plants can remember past environmental events and can use these memories to aid responses when these events recur. In this mini review, we focus on recent progress in determination of the epigenetic mechanisms used by plants under various environmental stresses. Epigenetic mechanisms are now known to play a vital role in the control of gene expression through small RNAs, histone modifications and DNA methylation. These are inherited through mitotic cell divisions and, in some cases, can be transmitted to the next generation. They therefore offer a possible mechanism for stress memories in plants. Recent studies have yielded evidence indicating that epigenetic mechanisms are indeed essential for stress memories and adaptation in plants.

Small molecules present large opportunities in plant biology.

Since the introduction of chemical genomics to plant biology as a tool for basic research, the field has advanced significantly. There are now examples of important basic discoveries that demonstrate the power and untapped potential of this approach. Given the combination of protein and small-molecule complexity, new phenotypes can be described through the perturbation of cellular functions that can be linked to growth and developmental phenotypes. There are now clear examples of overcoming functional redundancy in plants to dissect molecular mechanisms or critical pathways such as hormone signaling and dynamic intracellular processes. Owing to ongoing advances, including more sophisticated high-content screening and rapid approaches for target identification, the field is beginning to move forward. However, there are also challenges to improve automation, imaging, and analysis and provide chemical biology resources to the broader plant biology community.

An engineered innate immune defense protects grapevines from Pierce disease.

We postulated that a synergistic combination of two innate immune functions, pathogen surface recognition and lysis, in a protein chimera would lead to a robust class of engineered antimicrobial therapeutics for protection against pathogens. In support of our hypothesis, we have engineered such a chimera to protect against the gram-negative Xylella fastidiosa (Xf), which causes diseases in multiple plants of economic importance. Here we report the design and delivery of this chimera to target the Xf subspecies fastidiosa (Xff), which causes Pierce disease in grapevines and poses a great threat to the wine-growing regions of California. One domain of this chimera is an elastase that recognizes and cleaves MopB, a conserved outer membrane protein of Xff. The second domain is a lytic peptide, cecropin B, which targets conserved lipid moieties and creates pores in the Xff outer membrane. A flexible linker joins the recognition and lysis domains, thereby ensuring correct folding of the individual domains and synergistic combination of their functions. The chimera transgene is fused with an amino-terminal signal sequence to facilitate delivery of the chimera to the plant xylem, the site of Xff colonization. We demonstrate that the protein chimera expressed in the xylem is able to directly target Xff, suppress its growth, and significantly decrease the leaf scorching and xylem clogging commonly associated with Pierce disease in grapevines. We believe that similar strategies involving protein chimeras can be developed to protect against many diseases caused by human and plant pathogens.

[System of innate immunity in plants].

The review deals with the mechanisms of innate immunity in plants with a focus on families of pattern-recognition receptors and regard for recent data on complete sequencing of the genomes of several plant species. Plants utilize several families of such receptors, both membrane-bound and cytoplasmic ones, which contain conservative leucine-rich repeats. The lack of adaptive immunity and there to related rearrangements in genes encoding immune receptors in plants are partly compensated by mechanisms of "specific" immunity to counter particular pathogens; such mechanisms being fully encoded within a plant genome. At the level of intracellular signal transduction, as well as in respect of effector mechanisms, similarities between plant and animal innate immune systems can be found, although the latter has many additional aspects.

Complex effects of parasitoids on pharmacophagy and diet choice of a polyphagous caterpillar.

This study investigates complex effects of parasitoid infection on herbivore diet choice. Specifically, we examine how immunological resistance, parasitoid infection stage, and parasitoid taxonomic identity affect the pharmacophagous behavior of the polyphagous caterpillar, Grammia incorrupta (Arctiidae). Using a combination of lab and field experiments, we test the caterpillar's pharmacophagous response to pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) over the course of parasitoid infection, as well as the effect of dietary PAs on the caterpillar's immunological response. Previous work from other systems gave the prediction that dietary PAs would be detrimental to the immune response and thus less acceptable to feeding early in the infection, when encapsulation of the parasitoid is most crucial. We found that the feeding acceptability of PAs was indeed low for caterpillars with early-stage parasitoid infections; however, this was not explained by PA interference with immune function. When allowed to choose among three host plant species, individuals harboring early-stage parasitoids increased their consumption of a nutritious plant containing antioxidants. This result was driven by wasp-parasitized caterpillars, whereas fly-parasitized caterpillars increased their consumption of plants containing iridoid glycosides. Individuals in the later time phase of infection exhibited an increase in PA intake that was consistent with previously reported self-medication behavior during late-stage parasitoid infection. This study reveals the depth of complexity and the dynamic nature of herbivore host plant choice, and underscores the importance of considering multitrophic interactions when studying insect diet choice.

[Genetically programmed cell death: the basis of homeostasis and form of phytoimmunity response].

This paper gives a brief overview of the recent ideas about programmed cell death including apoptosis in animals and plants. Comparison of these processes in animal and plant cells in terms of physiological features has been presented. Necrosis as a form of pathological, not genetically programmed cell death has been characterized. Reflections about the meaning (the need) of apoptosis in the formation of hypersensitive response in plants and the role of programmed cell death in joint relations between pathogens and plants have been considered.