Danger-Associated Peptide Regulates Root Immune Responses and Root Growth by Affecting ROS Formation in <i>Arabidopsis</i>

oleh: Yanping Jing, Nuo Shen, Xiaojiang Zheng, Aigen Fu, Fugeng Zhao, Wenzhi Lan, Sheng Luan

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2020-06-01

Deskripsi

Plant elicitor peptides (Peps) are damage/danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) that are perceived by a pair of receptor-like kinases, PEPR1 and PEPR2, to enhance innate immunity and induce the growth inhibition of root in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>. In this study, we show that PEPR1 and PEPR2 function vitally in roots to regulate the root immune responses when treating the roots with bacterial pathogen <i>Pst DC3000</i>. PEPR2, rather than PEPR1, played a predominant role in the perception of Pep1 in the roots and further triggered a strong ROS accumulation—the substance acts as an antimicrobial agent or as a secondary messenger in plant cells. Consistently, seedlings mutating two major ROS-generating enzyme genes, <i>respiratory burst oxidase homologs D</i> and <i>F</i> (<i>RBOHD</i> and <i>RBOHF</i>), abolished the root ROS accumulation and impaired the growth inhibition of the roots induced by Pep1. Furthermore, we revealed that botrytis-induced kinase 1 (BIK1) physically interacted with PEPRs and RBOHD/F, respectively, and served downstream of the Pep1-PEPRs signaling pathway to regulate Pep1-induced ROS production and root growth inhibition. In conclusion, this study demonstrates a previously unrecognized signaling crosstalk between Pep1 and ROS signaling to regulate root immune response and root growth.