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N-terminal HrpE from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae mediates the regulation of growth and photosynthesis in rice

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Abstract

Harpin proteins, produced by gram-negative bacteria, can enhance the plant growth. The growth enhancing potential of the harpins are beneficial and may be associated with the functional regions of the proteins. Harpins are also known to stimulate the hypersensitive cell death (HCD) but identification of functional terminal of the proteins may be beneficial to use the deleterious regions of these proteins without any negative effects like HCD. Here, we report the identification and testing of the derivate fragments of HrpE protein from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, the pathogen that causes the bacterial blight disease in rice. Two fragments of the HrpE protein i.e. C-HrpE and N-HrpE generated by truncation mutation were evaluated for their response on the seed vigor index and vegetative growth of the rice plants. Rice seedlings and plants evaluated for their root and shoot morphology showed that N-HrpE protein is essential for plant growth enhancement and increased photosynthetic efficiency. Rice plants grown under the influence of HrpE and its derivate fragments were evaluated for the transcriptional profiling of the genes related to the plant growth and quantification of the growth regulatory hormones by UPLC provides the necessary avenues to prove that HrpE requires N terminus to enhance the vegetative growth in rice.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

We gratefully acknowledge financial support granted by China National Key Research and Development Plan (Grant no. 2017YFD0200901), The Natural Science Foundation of China (31772247,31672008), Talent Recruitment Funding of Shandong Agricultural University (0171226), the Open Project Program (CSBAA2020008) of State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas (NWAFU), and the College Students’ innovation and entrepreneurship training program (S20190007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Pathology, Nanjing Agricultural University, 210095, Nanjing, China

    Taha Majid Mahmood Sheikh, Alvina Hanif, Abdur Rashid Khan, Ping Li, Muhammad Zubair, Ayaz Farzand, Xue Ouyang & Meixiang Zhang

  2. Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China

    Taha Majid Mahmood Sheikh

  3. College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, 210095, Nanjing, China

    Muhammad Salman Haider

  4. College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, 310058, Hangzhou, China

    Haider Ali & Leeza Tariq

  5. Department of Plant Pathology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    Ayaz Farzand

  6. Department of Plant Pathology, Shandong Agricultural University, 271018, Taian, China

    Hansong Dong

  7. State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, 271018, Taian, China

    Hansong Dong

  8. State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, Northwest A&F University, 712100, Yangling, China

    Meixiang Zhang

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  1. Taha Majid Mahmood Sheikh
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  2. Muhammad Salman Haider
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  10. Xue Ouyang
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  11. Hansong Dong
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  12. Meixiang Zhang
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Contributions

Conceptualization, T.M.M.S., M.Z.; Methodology, T.M.M.S., M. Zu., A.H.; Software, A.R.K., A.F., M.S.H., H.A.; Validation, H.D., M.Z.; Formal analysis, M. Zu., M.S.H., P.L., L.T.; Data curation, X.O., P.L., L.T., H.A.; Writing-original draft preparation, T.M.M.S.; Writing-review and editing, T.M.M.S., M.Z., A.H., X.O.; Visualization, T.M.M.S., A.F., L.T., A.R.K.; Supervision, H.D., M.Z.; Project administration, M.Z.; Funding acquisition, H.D., M.Z.

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Correspondence to Hansong Dong or Meixiang Zhang.

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Sheikh, T.M.M., Haider, M.S., Hanif, A. et al. N-terminal HrpE from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae mediates the regulation of growth and photosynthesis in rice. Plant Growth Regul 96, 383–396 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-021-00790-w

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