Broad‐scale phenotyping in Arabidopsis reveals varied involvement of RNA interference across diverse plant‐microbe interactions
RNA interference (RNAi) is a crucial mechanism in immunity against infectious microbes through the action of DICER-LIKE (DCL) and ARGONAUTE (AGO) proteins. In the case of the taxonomically diverse fungal pathogen <i>Botrytis cinerea</i> and the oomycete <i>Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis</i>, plant DCL and AGO proteins have proven roles as negative regulators of immunity, suggesting functional specialization of these proteins. To address this aspect in a broader taxonomic context, we characterized the colonization pattern of an informative set of <i>DCL</i> and <i>AGO</i> loss-of-function mutants in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> upon infection with a panel of pathogenic microbes with different lifestyles, and a fungal mutualist. Our results revealed that, depending on the interacting pathogen, AGO1 acts as a positive or negative regulator of immunity, while AGO4 functions as a positive regulator. Additionally, AGO2 and AGO10 positively modulated the colonization by a fungal mutualist. Therefore, analyzing the role of RNAi across a broader range of plant-microbe interactions has identified previously unknown functions for AGO proteins. For some pathogen interactions, however, all tested mutants exhibited wild-type-like infection phenotypes, suggesting that the roles of AGO and DCL proteins in these interactions may be more complex to elucidate.
Authors
- Ena Šečić (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6469-4895)
- Sabrine Nasfi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5916-0824)
- Hannah Thieron (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0670-7328)
- Sebastian Fricke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2958-2094)
- Alessa Ruf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0919-9717)
- Ralph Panstruga (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3756-8957)
- Silke Robatzek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9788-322X)
- Jens Steinbrenner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1008-2268)
- Seomun Kwon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0514-1465)
- Karina Brinkrolf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0253-0024)
- Arne Weiberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4300-4864)
- Bernhard Lederer
- Patrick Blumenkamp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7013-9601)
- Vera Göhre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7118-1609)
- Michael Feldbrügge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0046-983X)
- Julia Kehr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3617-9981)
- Karl‐Heinz Kogel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1226-003X)
- Alexander Goesmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7086-2568)
- Trusha Adeshara
- Johannes Postma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0565-4487)
Institutions
- Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (DE)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (DE)
- Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes (FR)
- Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (DE)
- Urologische Klinik München (DE)
- Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (DE)
- Université de Strasbourg (FR)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- RWTH Aachen University (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Plant Direct
- Published
- 2024-11-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/pld3.70017
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.20
Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft