The conserved arginine required for AvrRps4 processing is also required for recognition of its N-terminal fragment in lettuce

Pathogens utilize a repertoire of effectors to facilitate pathogenesis, but when the host recognizes one of them it causes effector-triggered immunity. The Pseudomonas type III effector AvrRps4 is a bipartite effector that is processed in planta into a functional 133 amino acid N-terminus (AvrRps4-N) and 88 amino acid C-terminus (AvrRps4-C). Previous studies found AvrRps4-C to be sufficient to trigger HR in turnip. In contrast, our recent work found that AvrRps4-N, but not AvrRps4-C, triggered HR in lettuce whereas both were required for resistance induction in Arabidopsis. Here, we initially compared AvrRps4 recognition by turnip and lettuce using transient expression. By serial truncation, we identified the central conserved region consisting of 37 amino acids as essential for AvrRps4-N recognition, whereas the putative type III secretion signal peptide or the C-terminal 13 amino acids were dispensable. Surprisingly, the conserved arginine at position 112 (R112) that is required for full-length AvrRps4 processing is also required for the recognition of AvrRps4-N by lettuce. Mutating R112 to hydrophobic leucine or negatively charged glutamate abolished the HR-inducing capacity of AvrRps4-N, while a positively charged lysine at this position resulted in a slow and weak HR. Together, our results suggest an AvrRps4-N recognition-specific role of R112 in lettuce.

Membrane-Targeted HrpNEa Can Modulate Apple Defense Gene Expression

Fire blight caused by Erwinia amylovora is the major bacterial disease of tribe Maleae, including apple. Among the proteins secreted by this bacterium, HrpNEa, also called harpin, is known to induce hypersensitive response in nonhost plants and to form amyloid oligomers leading to pore opening in the plasma membrane and alteration of membrane homeostasis. To better understand the physiological effects of HrpNEa in the host plant, we produced transgenic apple plants expressing HrpNEa with or without a secretion signal peptide (SP). HrpNEa expressed with a SP was found to be associated within the membrane fraction, in accordance with amyloidogenic properties and the presence of transmembrane domains revealed by in silico analysis. Expression analysis of 28 apple defense-related genes revealed gene modulations in the transgenic line expressing membrane-targeted HrpNEa. While apple transgenic trees displaying a high constitutive expression level of SP-HrpNEa showed a slight reduction of infection frequency after E. amylovora inoculation, there was no decrease in the disease severity. Thus HrpNEa seems to act as an elicitor of host defenses, when localized in the host membrane.

Expression of Recombinant Chinese Bovine Enterokinase Catalytic Subunit in P. pastoris and Its Purification and Characterization

Enterokinase is a tool protease widely utilized in the cleavage of recombinant fusion proteins. cDNA encoding the catalytic subunit of Chinese bovine enterokinase (EKL) was amplified by PCR and then fused to the 3′ end of prepro secretion signal peptide gene of α-mating factor from Saccharomyces cerevisiae to get the α-MF signal-EKL-His6 encoding gene by PCR. Then the whole coding sequence was cloned into the integrative plasmid pAO815 under the control of a methanol-inducible promoter and transformed GS115 methylotrophic strain of Pichia pastoris. Secreted expression of recombinant EKL-His6 was attained by methanol induction and its molecular weight is 43 kD. Because of the existence of His6-tag, EKL-His6 was easily purified from P. pastoris fermentation supernatant by using Ni2+ affinity chromatography and the yield is 5.4 mg per liter of fermentation culture. This purified EKL-His6 demonstrates excellent cleavage activity towards fusion protein containing EK cleavage site.