An effector from the Huanglongbing-associated pathogen targets citrus proteases.

The citrus industry is facing an unprecedented challenge from Huanglongbing (HLB). All cultivars can be affected by the HLB-associated bacterium 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' (CLas) and there is no known resistance. Insight into HLB pathogenesis is urgently needed in order to develop effective management strategies. Here, we use Sec-delivered effector 1 (SDE1), which is conserved in all CLas isolates, as a molecular probe to understand CLas virulence. We show that SDE1 directly interacts with citrus papain-like cysteine proteases (PLCPs) and inhibits protease activity. PLCPs are defense-inducible and exhibit increased protein accumulation in CLas-infected trees, suggesting a role in citrus defense responses. We analyzed PLCP activity in field samples, revealing specific members that increase in abundance but remain unchanged in activity during infection. SDE1-expressing transgenic citrus also exhibit reduced PLCP activity. These data demonstrate that SDE1 inhibits citrus PLCPs, which are immune-related proteases that enhance defense responses in plants.

Mechanism of host substrate acetylation by a YopJ family effector.

The Yersinia outer protein J (YopJ) family of bacterial effectors depends on a novel acetyltransferase domain to acetylate signalling proteins from plant and animal hosts. However, the underlying mechanism is unclear. Here, we report the crystal structures of PopP2, a YopJ effector produced by the plant pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum, in complex with inositol hexaphosphate (InsP6), acetyl-coenzyme A (AcCoA) and/or substrate Resistance to Ralstonia solanacearum 1 (RRS1-R)WRKY. PopP2 recognizes the WRKYGQK motif of RRS1-RWRKY to position a targeted lysine in the active site for acetylation. Importantly, the PopP2-RRS1-RWRKY association is allosterically regulated by InsP6 binding, suggesting a previously unidentified role of the eukaryote-specific cofactor in substrate interaction. Furthermore, we provide evidence for the reaction intermediate of PopP2-mediated acetylation, an acetyl-cysteine covalent adduct, lending direct support to the 'ping-pong'-like catalytic mechanism proposed for YopJ effectors. Our study provides critical mechanistic insights into the virulence activity of YopJ class of acetyltransferases.

The Tomato Kinase Pti1 Contributes to Production of Reactive Oxygen Species in Response to Two Flagellin-Derived Peptides and Promotes Resistance to Pseudomonas syringae Infection.

The Pti1 kinase was identified from a reverse genetic screen as contributing to pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst). The tomato genome has two Pti1 genes, referred to as Pti1a and Pti1b. A hairpin-Pti1 (hpPti1) construct was developed and was used to generate two independent stable transgenic tomato lines that had reduced transcript abundance of both genes. In response to P. syringae pv. tomato inoculation, these hpPti1 plants developed more severe disease symptoms, supported higher bacterial populations, and had reduced transcript accumulation of PTI-associated genes, as compared with wild-type plants. In response to two flagellin-derived peptides, the hpPti1 plants produced lesser amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) but showed no difference in mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). Synthetic Pti1a and Pti1b genes designed to avoid silencing were transiently expressed in the hpPti1 plants and restored the ability of the plants to produce wild-type levels of ROS. Our results identify a new component of PTI in tomato that, because it affects ROS production but not MAPK signaling, appears to act early in the immune response.

Detecting N-myristoylation and S-acylation of host and pathogen proteins in plants using click chemistry.

BACKGROUND: The plant plasma membrane is a key battleground in the war between plants and their pathogens. Plants detect the presence of pathogens at the plasma membrane using sensor proteins, many of which are targeted to this lipophilic locale by way of fatty acid modifications. Pathogens secrete effector proteins into the plant cell to suppress the plant's defense mechanisms. These effectors are able to access and interfere with the surveillance machinery at the plant plasma membrane by hijacking the host's fatty acylation apparatus. Despite the important involvement of protein fatty acylation in both plant immunity and pathogen virulence mechanisms, relatively little is known about the role of this modification during plant-pathogen interactions. This dearth in our understanding is due largely to the lack of methods to monitor protein fatty acid modifications in the plant cell. RESULTS: We describe a rapid method to detect two major forms of fatty acylation, N-myristoylation and S-acylation, of candidate proteins using alkyne fatty acid analogs coupled with click chemistry. We applied our approach to confirm and decisively demonstrate that the archetypal pattern recognition receptor FLS2, the well-characterized pathogen effector AvrPto, and one of the best-studied intracellular resistance proteins, Pto, all undergo plant-mediated fatty acylation. In addition to providing a means to readily determine fatty acylation, particularly myristoylation, of candidate proteins, this method is amenable to a variety of expression systems. We demonstrate this using both Arabidopsis protoplasts and stable transgenic Arabidopsis plants and we leverage Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves as a means for high-throughput evaluation of candidate proteins. CONCLUSIONS: Protein fatty acylation is a targeting tactic employed by both plants and their pathogens. The metabolic labeling approach leveraging alkyne fatty acid analogs and click chemistry described here has the potential to provide mechanistic details of the molecular tactics used at the host plasma membrane in the battle between plants and pathogens.

Phytophthora infestans RXLR-WY Effector AVR3a Associates with Dynamin-Related Protein 2 Required for Endocytosis of the Plant Pattern Recognition Receptor FLS2.

Pathogens utilize effectors to suppress basal plant defense known as PTI (Pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered immunity). However, our knowledge of PTI suppression by filamentous plant pathogens, i.e. fungi and oomycetes, remains fragmentary. Previous work revealed that the co-receptor BAK1/SERK3 contributes to basal immunity against the potato pathogen Phytophthora infestans. Moreover BAK1/SERK3 is required for the cell death induced by P. infestans elicitin INF1, a protein with characteristics of PAMPs. The P. infestans host-translocated RXLR-WY effector AVR3a is known to supress INF1-mediated cell death by binding the plant E3 ligase CMPG1. In contrast, AVR3aKI-Y147del, a deletion mutant of the C-terminal tyrosine of AVR3a, fails to bind CMPG1 and does not suppress INF1-mediated cell death. Here, we studied the extent to which AVR3a and its variants perturb additional BAK1/SERK3-dependent PTI responses in N. benthamiana using the elicitor/receptor pair flg22/FLS2 as a model. We found that all tested variants of AVR3a suppress defense responses triggered by flg22 and reduce internalization of activated FLS2. Moreover, we discovered that AVR3a associates with the Dynamin-Related Protein 2 (DRP2), a plant GTPase implicated in receptor-mediated endocytosis. Interestingly, silencing of DRP2 impaired ligand-induced FLS2 internalization but did not affect internalization of the growth receptor BRI1. Our results suggest that AVR3a associates with a key cellular trafficking and membrane-remodeling complex involved in immune receptor-mediated endocytosis. We conclude that AVR3a is a multifunctional effector that can suppress BAK1/SERK3-mediated immunity through at least two different pathways.

Pto kinase binds two domains of AvrPtoB and its proximity to the effector E3 ligase determines if it evades degradation and activates plant immunity.

The tomato--Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst)--pathosystem is one of the best understood models for plant-pathogen interactions. Certain wild relatives of tomato express two closely related members of the same kinase family, Pto and Fen, which recognize the Pst virulence protein AvrPtoB and activate effector-triggered immunity (ETI). AvrPtoB, however, contains an E3 ubiquitin ligase domain in its carboxyl terminus which causes degradation of Fen and undermines its ability to activate ETI. In contrast, Pto evades AvrPtoB-mediated degradation and triggers ETI in response to the effector. It has been reported recently that Pto has higher kinase activity than Fen and that this difference allows Pto to inactivate the E3 ligase through phosphorylation of threonine-450 (T450) in AvrPtoB. Here we show that, in contrast to Fen which can only interact with a single domain proximal to the E3 ligase of AvrPtoB, Pto binds two distinct domains of the effector, the same site as Fen and another N-terminal domain. In the absence of E3 ligase activity Pto binds to either domain of AvrPtoB to activate ETI. However, the presence of an active E3 ligase domain causes ubiquitination of Pto that interacts with the domain proximal to the E3 ligase, identical to ubiquitination of Fen. Only when Pto binds its unique distal domain can it resist AvrPtoB-mediated degradation and activate ETI. We show that phosphorylation of T450 is not required for Pto-mediated resistance in vivo and that a kinase-inactive version of Pto is still capable of activating ETI in response to AvrPtoB. Our results demonstrate that the ability of Pto to interact with a second site distal to the E3 ligase domain in AvrPtoB, and not a higher kinase activity or T450 phosphorylation, allows Pto to evade ubiquitination and to confer immunity to Pst.

Structural analysis of Pseudomonas syringae AvrPtoB bound to host BAK1 reveals two similar kinase-interacting domains in a type III Effector.

To infect plants, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato delivers ~30 type III effector proteins into host cells, many of which interfere with PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI). One effector, AvrPtoB, suppresses PTI using a central domain to bind host BAK1, a kinase that acts with several pattern recognition receptors to activate defense signaling. A second AvrPtoB domain binds and suppresses the PTI-associated kinase Bti9 but is conversely recognized by the protein kinase Pto to activate effector-triggered immunity. We report the crystal structure of the AvrPtoB-BAK1 complex, which revealed structural similarity between these two AvrPtoB domains, suggesting that they arose by intragenic duplication. The BAK1 kinase domain is structurally similar to Pto, and a conserved region within both BAK1 and Pto interacts with AvrPtoB. BAK1 kinase activity is inhibited by AvrPtoB, and mutations at the interaction interface disrupt AvrPtoB virulence activity. These results shed light on a structural mechanism underlying host-pathogen coevolution.

The wheat Mla homologue TmMla1 exhibits an evolutionarily conserved function against powdery mildew in both wheat and barley.

The race-specific barley powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei) resistance gene Mla occurs as an allelic series and encodes CC-NB-LRR type resistance proteins. Inter-generic allele mining resulted in the isolation and characterisation of an Mla homologue from diploid wheat, designated TmMla1, which shares 78% identity with barley HvMLA1 at the protein level. TmMla1 was found to be a functional resistance gene against Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici in wheat, hereby providing an example of R gene orthologs controlling the same disease in two different species. TmMLA1 exhibits race-specific resistance activity and its N-terminal coiled-coil domain interacts with the barley transcription factor HvWRKY1. Interestingly, TmMLA1 was not functional in barley transient assays. Replacement of the TmMLA1 LRR domain with that of HvMLA1 revealed that this fusion protein conferred resistance against B. graminis f. sp. hordei isolate K1 in barley. Thus, TmMLA1 not only confers resistance in wheat but possibly also in barley against an as yet unknown barley powdery mildew race. The conservation of functional R gene orthologs over at least 12 million years is surprising given the observed rapid breakdown of Mla-based resistance against barley mildew in agricultural ecosystems. This suggests a high stability of Mla resistance in the natural environment before domestication.

Ten things to know about oomycete effectors.

Long considered intractable organisms by fungal genetic research standards, the oomycetes have recently moved to the centre stage of research on plant-microbe interactions. Recent work on oomycete effector evolution, trafficking and function has led to major conceptual advances in the science of plant pathology. In this review, we provide a historical perspective on oomycete genetic research and summarize the state of the art in effector biology of plant pathogenic oomycetes by describing what we consider to be the 10 most important concepts about oomycete effectors.