Arabidopsis response reGUlator 6 (ARR6) modulates plant cell-wall composition and disease resistance

Laura Bacete, Hugo Mélida, Gemma López, Patrick Dabos, Dominique Tremousaygue, Nicolas Denancé, Eva Miedes, Vincent Bulone, Deborah Goffner, Antonio Molina

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The cytokinin signaling pathway, which is mediated by Arabidopsis response regulator (ARR) proteins, has been involved in the modulation of some disease-resistance responses. Here, we describe novel functions of ARR6 in the control of plant disease-resistance and cell-wall composition. Plants impaired in ARR6 function (arr6) were more resistant and susceptible, respectively, to the necrotrophic fungus Plectosphaerella cucumerina and to the vascular bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum, whereas Arabidopsis plants that overexpress ARR6 showed the opposite phenotypes, which further support a role of ARR6 in the modulation of disease-resistance responses against these pathogens. Transcriptomics and metabolomics analyses revealed that, in arr6 plants, canonical disease-resistance pathways, like those activated by defensive phytohormones, were not altered, whereas immune responses triggered by microbe-associated molecular patterns were slightly enhanced. Cell-wall composition of arr6 plants was found to be severely altered compared with that of wild-type plants. Remarkably, pectin-enriched cell-wall fractions extracted from arr6 walls triggered more intense immune responses than those activated by similar wall fractions from wild-type plants, suggesting that arr6 pectin fraction is enriched in wall-related damage-associated molecular patterns, which trigger immune responses. This work supports a novel function of ARR6 in the control of cell-wall composition and disease resistance and reinforces the role of the plant cell wall in the modulation of specific immune responses.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)767-780
Number of pages14
JournalMolecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
Volume33
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Arabidopsis response regulators (ARR)
  • Cell wall
  • Cytokinin
  • Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs)
  • Disease resistance
  • Immunity
  • Plectosphaerella cucumerina
  • Ralstonia solanacearum

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