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Modulation of defense signal transduction by flagellin-induced WRKY41 transcription factor in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

Flagellin, a component of the flagellar filament of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci 6605 (Pta), induces hypersensitive reaction in its non-host Arabidopsis thaliana. We identified the WRKY41 gene, which belongs to a multigene family encoding WRKY plant-specific transcription factors, as one of the flagellin-inducible genes in A. thaliana. Expression of WRKY41 is induced by inoculation with the incompatible pathogen P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pto) possessing AvrRpt2 and the non-host pathogens Pta within 6-h after inoculation, but not by inoculation with the compatible Pto. Expression of WRKY41 was also induced by inoculation of A. thaliana with an hrp-type three secretion system (T3SS)-defective mutant of Pto, indicating that effectors produced by T3SS in the Pto wild-type suppress the activation of WRKY41. Arabidopsis overexpressing WRKY41 showed enhanced resistance to the Pto wild-type but increased susceptibility to Erwinia carotovora EC1. WRKY41-overexpressing Arabidopsis constitutively expresses the PR5 gene, but suppresses the methyl jasmonate-induced PDF1.2 gene expression. These results demonstrate that WRKY41 may be a key regulator in the cross talk of salicylic acid and jasmonic acid pathways.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. A. Collmer (Cornell University, USA), Dr. J. L. Dangl (North Carolina University, USA), and Dr. S. Tsuyumu (Shizuoka University, Japan) for providing Pto wild-type and its ΔhrcQ-U mutant, Pto::avrRpt2, and Ecc EC1, respectively. We are also grateful to the Leaf Tobacco Research Laboratory, Japan Tobacco Inc., the Plant Cell Bank of The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), and the Salk Institute Genomic Analysis Laboratory for providing Pta and T-87 A. thaliana suspension-cultured cells and seeds for fls2- and WRKY41-mutants, respectively. This work was partly supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) (No. 15108001) and (B) (No. 18380035) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, Program for Promotion of Basic Research Activities for Innovative Bioscience (PROBRAIN) and the Okayama University COE program “Establishment of Plant Health Science”.

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  1. Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, 1-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan

    Kuniaki Higashi, Yasuhiro Ishiga, Yoshishige Inagaki, Kazuhiro Toyoda, Tomonori Shiraishi & Yuki Ichinose

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  1. Kuniaki Higashi
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  2. Yasuhiro Ishiga
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  3. Yoshishige Inagaki
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  4. Kazuhiro Toyoda
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  5. Tomonori Shiraishi
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  6. Yuki Ichinose
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Correspondence to Yuki Ichinose.

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Supplementary Table 1 Primers used in this study for semi-quantitative RT-PCR (XLS 22 kb)

438_2007_315_MOESM2_ESM.xls

Supplementary Table 2 Frequencies of potential binding sequences recognized by WRKY transcription factors in the genes affected by WRKY41 overexpression (XLS 19 kb)

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Higashi, K., Ishiga, Y., Inagaki, Y. et al. Modulation of defense signal transduction by flagellin-induced WRKY41 transcription factor in Arabidopsis thaliana . Mol Genet Genomics 279, 303–312 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-007-0315-0

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