Project description:Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a special plant pathogen causing crown gall disease. This pathogen is well known for the technology Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. As a pathogen, Agrobacterium triggers plant immunity, and this affects transformation. But the signaling components and pathways in plant immunity to Agrobacterium remain elusive. We demonstrate two Arabidopsis MAPKKs MKK4/MKK5 and their downstream MAPKs MPK3/MPK6 play a major role in both Agrobacterium-triggered immunity and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Agrobacteria induce MPK3/MPK6 activity and plant defense responsive genes expression in a very early stage. This process is dependent on MKK4/MKK5 function. Loss of function of MKK4 and MKK5 or their downstream MPK3 and MPK6 abolishes plant immunity to agrobacteria, and increases the transformation frequency, while activation of MKK4 and MKK5 enhances the plant immunity and represses the transformation. Global transcriptome indicates agrobacteria induce various plant defense pathways, including ROS production, ethylene and SA-mediated defense responses, and MKK4/MKK5 is essential for these pathways induction. Activation of MKK4 and MKK5 promotes ROS production and cell death in agrobacteria infection process. Ethylene and SA act bypass of MKK4/MKK5 signaling to regulate transformation. Based on these results, we propose MKK4/5-MPK3/6 cascade is an essential signaling pathway to regulate Agrobacterium-mediated transformation by modulating Agrobacterium-triggered plant immunity.
Project description:inra12-05_mut_flg_ii-FLG-MPKs ra12-05_mut_flg_ii - inra12-05_mut_flg_ii - Analysis of flg22-induced transcriptional changes in mpk3, mpk4 and mpk6 mutants. - 2 weeks old seedlings compared for transcriptome after a 30min mock or 1µM flg22 treatment.
Project description:inra12-05_mut_flg_ii-FLG-MPKs ra12-05_mut_flg_ii - inra12-05_mut_flg_ii - Analysis of flg22-induced transcriptional changes in mpk3, mpk4 and mpk6 mutants. - 2 weeks old seedlings compared for transcriptome after a 30min mock or 1µM flg22 treatment. 21 dye-swap - gene knock out,normal vs mutant comparison,treated vs untreated comparison
Project description:MicroRNA microarray profiling was performed in Arabidopsis seedlings - Col-0, atmpk3 and atmpk6 mutants to uncover the roles of MPK3 and MPK6 in microRNA biogenesis pathway.
Project description:In Arabidopsis, mitogen-activated protein kinases MPK3, MPK4 and MPK6 constitute essential relays for a variety of functions including cell division, development and innate immunity. While some substrates of MPK3, MPK4 and MPK6 have been identified, the picture is still far from complete. To identify substrates of these MAPKs in cell division, growth and development we compared the phosphoproteomes of wild-type and mpk3, mpk4 and mpk6. To study the function of these MAPKs in innate immunity, we analyzed their phosphoproteomes following activation by a microbe-associated molecular pattern (MAMP). Partially overlapping substrates were retrieved for all three MAPKs, showing target specificity to one, two or all three MAPKs in different biological processes. More precisely, our results illustrate the fact that the entity to be defined as a specific or a shared substrate for MAPKs is not a phosphoprotein but a particular (S/T)P phosphorylation site in a given protein. As a whole, 152 peptides were identified to be differentially phosphorylated in response to MAMP treatment and/or when compared between genotypes and 70 of them could be classified as putative MAPK targets. Biochemical analysis of a number of putative MAPK substrates by phosphorylation and interaction assays confirmed the global phosphoproteome approach. Our study finally expands the set of MAPK substrates to involve other protein kinases, including calcium-dependent (CDPK) and sugar non-fermenting (SnRK) protein kinases.
Project description:Alternative splicing (AS) of pre-mRNAs in plants is an important mechanism of gene regulation in environmental stress tolerance but plant signals involved are essentially unknown. Pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP)-triggered immunity (PTI) is mediated by mitogen-activated protein kinases and the majority of PTI defense genes are regulated by MPK3, MPK4 and MPK6. These responses have been mainly analyzed at the transcriptional level, however many splicing factors are direct targets of MAPKs. Here, we studied alternative splicing induced by the PAMP flagellin in Arabidopsis.
Project description:Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) target a variety of protein substrates to regulate cellular signaling processes in eukaryotes. In plants, the number of identified MAPK substrates that control plant defense responses is still limited. Here, we generated transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants with an inducible system to simulate in vivo activation of two stress-activated MAPKs, MPK3 and MPK6. Metabolome analysis revealed that this artificial MPK3/6 activation (without any exposure to pathogens or other stresses) is sufficient to drive the production of major defense-related metabolites, including various camalexin, indole glucosinolate and agmatine derivatives. An accompanying (phospho)proteome analysis led to detection of hundreds of potential phosphoproteins downstream of MPK3/6 activation. Besides known MAPK substrates, many candidates on this list possess typical MAPK-targeted phosphosites and in many cases, the corresponding phosphopeptides were detected by mass spectrometry. Notably, several of these putative phosphoproteins have been reported to be associated with the biosynthesis of antimicrobial defense substances (e.g. WRKY transcription factors and proteins encoded by the genes from the “PEN” pathway required for penetration resistance to filamentous pathogens). Thus, this work provides an inventory of candidate phosphoproteins, including putative direct MAPK substrates, for future analysis of MAPK-mediated defense control.
Project description:Arabidopsis MPK11 is activated and plays a role in the flg22 sensing. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) mediate cellular signal transduction during stress responses, as well as diverse growth and developmental steps in eukaryotes. Pathogen infection or treatment with conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) such as the bacterial flagellin-derived flg22 peptide are known to activate three Arabidopsis thaliana MAPKs, MPK3, MPK4 and MPK6. Several stresses, including flg22 treatment, are known to increase MPK11 expression but activation of MPK11 has not been shown. Here, we show that MPK11 activity can indeed be increased through flg22 elicitation. Expression profiling using a small-scale microarray for defense-related genes revealed that cinnamyl alcohol dehyrogenase 5 (CAD5) requires MPK11 for full flg22-induced expression. An mpk11 mutant showed increased flg22-mediated growth inhibition but no altered susceptibility to Pseudomonas syringae, Botrytis cinerea or Alternaria brassicicola. A 24 DNA microarray study using toral RNA from an Arabidopsis mutant (mpk11 SALK049352) as well as wild type treated with water or flg22.