Infection-induced rapid cell death in plants: a means of efficient pathogen defense

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (S1) ◽  
pp. 426-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmon Schmelzer ◽  
Beatrix Naton ◽  
Sibylle Freytag ◽  
Ila Rouhara ◽  
Bernhard Küster ◽  
...  

The hypersensitive reaction represents one of the major means by which plants actively defend themselves against infection by pathogenic bacteria, fungi, viruses, and nematodes. This complex defense reaction, often associated with the synthesis of phytoalexins (antimicrobial secondary metabolites), involves at the cellular level highly dynamic cytoplasmic rearrangements, rapid metabolic changes, and finally cell death. It also correlates with the rapid and transient activation of various defense-related genes in a region of tissue surrounding infection sites and later, with the systemic increase in expression of a number of other genes. Examination of the reactions of individual living cells of potato leaves infected with Phytophthora infestans enabled the comprehensive description of the dynamic aspects of all stages of the defense response. Cytochemical investigations, employing cultured cells of parsley infected with P. infestans as a versatile model system, have contributed to a better understanding of cytoplasmic and metabolic processes occurring during the defense response, and suggest that hypersensitive cell death requires the preceding activation of respiration and specific metabolic pathways. Key words: defense responses, defense-related genes, hypersensitive reaction, programmed cell death.

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Yano ◽  
Kaoru Suzuki ◽  
Hirofumi Uchimiya ◽  
Hideaki Shinshi

Treatment of suspension-cultured tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi) cells (line XD6S) with fungal proteinaceous elicitors, namely, xylanase (EC 3.2.1.8) from Trichoderma viride (TvX) and xylanase from T. reesei (TrX), induced shrinkage of the cytoplasm, condensation of the nucleus, and, finally, cell death, which were accompanied by typical defense responses that included an oxidative burst and expression of defense genes. A Ca2+ channel blocker, Gd3+, inhibited the typical response of XD6S cells to TvX, which resembled the hypersensitive reaction (HR). These results suggested that the influx of Ca2+ ions plays an important role as a secondary signal. The HR was not observed in TvX-treated tobacco cells (line BY-2) derived from cv. Bright Yellow 2. This result suggests that key features of cultivar-specific interaction can be observed in cultures of tobacco cells. Xylanase from Bacillus circulans (BcX) and B. subtilis (BsX), which has enzymatic properties similar to those of TvX but an amino acid sequence different from that of TvX, did not induce the HR-like response in XD6S cells. These results suggest that the elicitor action of TvX is not due to its ability to hydrolyze cell walls but requires the TvX-specific recognition factors in plant cells. Thus, TvX-induced cell death was not due to some general toxic effect, but seems to be mediated by the activation of a specific cellular signal-transduction cascade that converges with a pathway that activates the intracellular cell death program.


2008 ◽  
Vol 98 (7) ◽  
pp. 781-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Chen ◽  
Jun Qian ◽  
Shuping Qu ◽  
Juying Long ◽  
Qian Yin ◽  
...  

Harpin proteins from gram-negative plant-pathogenic bacteria can stimulate hypersensitive cell death (HCD) and pathogen defense as well as enhance growth in plants. Two of these diverse activities clearly are beneficial and may depend on particular functional regions of the proteins. Identification of beneficial and deleterious regions might facilitate the beneficial use of harpin-related proteins on crops without causing negative effects like cell death. Here, we report the identification and testing of nine functional fragments of HpaGXooc, a 137-amino-acid harpin protein from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola, the pathogen that causes bacterial leaf streak of rice. Polymerase chain reaction-based mutagenesis generated nine proteinaceous fragments of HpaGXooc; these caused different responses following their application to Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) and Oryza sativa (rice). Fragment HpaG62-137, which spans the indicated amino acid residues of the HpaG, induced more intense HCD; in contrast, HpaG10-42 did not cause evident cell death in tobacco. However, both fragments stimulated stronger defense responses and enhanced more growth in rice than the full-length parent protein, HpaGXooc. Of the nine fragments, the parent protein and one deletion mutant of HpaGXooc tested, HpaG10-42, stimulated higher levels of rice growth and resulted in greater levels of resistance to X. oryzae pv. oryzae and Magnaporthe grisea. These pathogens cause bacterial leaf blight and rice blast, respectively, the two most important diseases of rice world-wide. HpaG10-42 was more active than HpaGXooc in inducing expression of several genes that regulate rice defense and growth processes and activating certain signaling pathways, which may explain the greater beneficial effects observed from treatment with that fragment. Overall, our results suggest that HpaG10-42 holds promise for practical agricultural use to induce disease resistance and enhance growth of rice.


2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1217-1227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Eichmann ◽  
Melanie Bischof ◽  
Corina Weis ◽  
Jane Shaw ◽  
Christophe Lacomme ◽  
...  

BAX INHIBITOR-1 (BI-1) is one of the few proteins known to have cross-kingdom conserved functions in negative control of programmed cell death. Additionally, barley BI-1 (HvBI-1) suppresses defense responses and basal resistance to the powdery mildew fungus Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei and enhances resistance to cell death–provoking fungi when overexpressed in barley. Downregulation of HvBI-1 by transient-induced gene silencing or virus-induced gene silencing limited susceptibility to B. graminis f. sp. hordei, suggesting that HvBI-1 is a susceptibility factor toward powdery mildew. Transient silencing of BI-1 did not limit supersusceptibility induced by overexpression of MLO. Transgenic barley plants harboring an HvBI-1 RNA interference (RNAi) construct displayed lower levels of HvBI-1 transcripts and were less susceptible to powdery mildew than wild-type plants. At the cellular level, HvBI-1 RNAi plants had enhanced resistance to penetration by B. graminis f. sp. hordei. These data support a function of BI-1 in modulating cell-wall-associated defense and in establishing full compatibility of B. graminis f. sp. hordei with barley.


2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1937-1951 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wendehenne ◽  
Olivier Lamotte ◽  
Jean-Marie Frachisse ◽  
Hélène Barbier-Brygoo ◽  
Alain Pugin

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bomin Kim ◽  
Chikara Masuta ◽  
Hideyuki Matsuura ◽  
Hideki Takahashi ◽  
Tsuyoshi Inukai

In the pathosystems of Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) with Brassicaceae crops, various symptoms, including mosaic and necrosis, are observed. We previously reported a necrosis-inducing factor TuNI in Arabidopsis thaliana, a model species. In this study, we show that the necrotic symptom induced by TuNI, observed along the veins, was actually a form of defense response accompanying a hypersensitive reaction (HR)-like cell death in the veinal area. The virus is often localized in the necrotic region. The necrotic response is associated with the production of H2O2, accumulation of salicylic acid (SA), emission of ethylene, and subsequent expression of defense-related genes. Additionally, this HR-like cell death is eased or erased by a shading treatment. These features are similar to the HR-associated resistance reaction to pathogens. However, unlike HR, two phytohormones—SA and ethylene—are involved in the necrosis induction, and both SA- and ethylene-dependent pathogenesis-related genes are activated. We concluded that the veinal necrosis induced by TuMV is regulated by a complex and unique network of at least two signaling pathways, which differs from the signal transduction for the known HR-associated resistance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verónica Hael-Conrad ◽  
Silvia Marisa Perato ◽  
Marta Eugenia Arias ◽  
Martín Gustavo Martínez-Zamora ◽  
Pía de los Ángeles Di Peto ◽  
...  

The elicitor AsES (Acremonium strictum elicitor subtilisin) is a 34-kDa subtilisin-like protein secreted by the opportunistic fungus Acremonium strictum. AsES activates innate immunity and confers resistance against anthracnose and gray mold diseases in strawberry plants (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) and the last disease also in Arabidopsis. In the present work, we show that, upon AsES recognition, a cascade of defense responses is activated, including: calcium influx, biphasic oxidative burst (O2⋅− and H2O2), hypersensitive cell-death response (HR), accumulation of autofluorescent compounds, cell-wall reinforcement with callose and lignin deposition, salicylic acid accumulation, and expression of defense-related genes, such as FaPR1, FaPG1, FaMYB30, FaRBOH-D, FaRBOH-F, FaCHI23, and FaFLS. All these responses occurred following a spatial and temporal program, first induced in infiltrated leaflets (local acquired resistance), spreading out to untreated lateral leaflets, and later, to distal leaves (systemic acquired resistance). After AsES treatment, macro-HR and macro–oxidative bursts were localized in infiltrated leaflets, while micro-HRs and microbursts occurred later in untreated leaves, being confined to a single cell or a cluster of a few epidermal cells that differentiated from the surrounding ones. The differentiated cells initiated a time-dependent series of physiological and anatomical changes, evolving to idioblasts accumulating H2O2 and autofluorescent compounds that blast, delivering its content into surrounding cells. This kind of systemic cell-death process in plants is described for the first time in response to a single elicitor. All data presented in this study suggest that AsES has the potential to activate a wide spectrum of biochemical and molecular defense responses in F. ananassa that may explain the induced protection toward pathogens of opposite lifestyle, like hemibiotrophic and necrotrophic fungi.


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