Systemic resistance signaling by Piriformospora

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1 Plant and Cell Physiology Advance Access published October 7, 2008 Systemic resistance signaling by Piriformospora Karl-Heinz Kogel Institute of Phytopathology and Applied Zoology, Justus Liebig University Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, D Giessen Germany Telephone: Fax: Subject area: Environmental and stress responses Number of figures: 2 black and white figures 1 color figure The Author Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org 1

2 Systemic resistance in Arabidopsis conferred by the mycorrhiza fungus Piriformospora indica requires jasmonic acid signaling and the cytoplasmic function of NPR1 Elke Stein 1, Alexandra Molitor 1, Karl-Heinz Kogel and Frank Waller Institute of Phytopathology and Applied Zoology, Research Centre for BioSystems, Land Use and Nutrition, Justus Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, Giessen, Germany 1 These two authors contributed equally to this work. 2

3 Abstract We analyzed requirement of specific defense pathways for powdery mildew (Golovinomyces orontii) resistance induced by the basidiomycete Piriformospora indica in Arabidopsis. P. indica root colonization reduced G. orontii conidia in wild type (Col-0), nonexpressor of PR1-3 (npr1-3) and NahG plants, but not in the npr1-1 null mutant. Therefore, cytoplasmic but not nuclear localization of NPR1 is required for P. indica-induced resistance. Two jasmonate signaling mutants were nonresponsive to P. indica, and jasmonic acid-responsive vegetative storage protein expression was primed and thus elevated in response to powdery mildew, suggesting that P. indica confers resistance reminiscent of induced systemic resistance (ISR). Keywords Systemic disease resistance Piriformospora indica Powdery mildew NPR1 Jasmonic Acid Arabidopsis 3

4 The root endophytic basidiomycete Piriformospora indica belongs to the recently defined order Sebacinales (Weiss et al., 2004). Species of this order form a novel type of mutualistic mycorrhizal symbiosis with a broad spectrum of host plants, such as barley, maize, Arabidopsis, tomato and tobacco (Varma et al. 1999, Shahollari et al. 2005, Deshmukh et al. 2006). In barley, the fungus induces resistance to root diseases and to the powdery mildew disease caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei (Waller et al. 2005). Plant colonization of P. indica is restricted to the root cortex, suggesting that resistance to leaf pathogens conferred by P. indica requires systemic signals. In Arabidopsis thaliana two mechanisms of systemic disease resistance are well-studied: Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) induced by necrotizing pathogens and a range of synthetic chemicals, and induced systemic resistance (ISR), induced primarily by non-pathogenic rhizobacteria (Pieterse et al. 1996, Ryals et al. 1996, Kogel and Langen 2005). We used Arabidopsis mutants to investigate whether these defense pathways are involved in P. indica-mediated resistance to powdery mildew caused by Golovinomyces orontii. Microscopic inspection of roots inoculated with P. indica detected hyphae on the root surface, intercellularly aligned to root cell walls, and albeit less frequently, intracellularly (Fig. 1A). Hyphae were confined mostly to the rhizodermis, and newly formed chlamydospores could be observed from dpi (Fig. 1B) on the root surface and inside rhizodermal cells (Fig. 1C, D). Interestingly, intracellular hyphal growth was not associated with increased autofluorescence of adjacent host cell walls under excitation light (365 nm) indicating that, similar to barley (Deshmukh and Kogel 2007), the fungus does not induce strong defense reactions in Arabidopsis roots. To assess the influence of P. indica on plant morphology, root and shoot growth was analyzed. By 14 dpi, main root length of P. indica colonized plants was reduced to 86.5% (+/-2.6 SD) of non-colonized plants. Number of lateral roots was 80.5% (+/-12.6 SD), average length of 4

5 lateral roots was 107.6% (+/-12.1 SD), and total root length was 84.4% (+/- 6.1 SD). However, only main root length was affected significantly (Students t-test p<0.05). In contrast to barley, P. indica colonized Arabidopsis did not show visible differences in shoot development, or an increase in shoot weight in experiments reported here. However, Arabidopsis biomass is increased by P. indica using specific culture conditions (Shahollari et al. 2005), which could be reproduced in several laboratories, including ours. To test if P. indica is capable to induce resistance in Arabidopsis to a leaf pathogen, we compared development of the powdery mildew fungus G. orontii on leaves of both wild type plants and Arabidopsis mutants compromised in JA and SA signaling. We found a strong systemic resistance response mediated by P. indica on Arabidopsis (Col-0): The number of conidiophores formed per mycelium was reduced at 5 dpi (compare Fig.1 E and F). The degree of resistance was quantified by determining the amount of G. orontii conidia per mg leaf fresh weight: By 10 dpi, the number of conidia in P. indica-colonized plants was only 47% of those recorded for non-colonized wild type plants (Fig. 2). Upon P. indica colonization, NahG plants (which are unable to accumulate SA; Gaffney et al. 1993) and the mutant nonexpressor of PR1 3 (npr1-3; Cao et al. 1994), showed reduced amounts of powdery mildew conidia of 46 and 45%, indicating that the SA-dependent pathway and nuclear localization of NPR1 abolished in npr1-3, are not required for P. indica-mediated resistance (Fig. 2). In contrast, the mutants jasmonate resistant 1-1 (jar1-1), jasmonate insensitive 1 (jin1), and npr1-1 were fully compromised in P. indica-mediated powdery mildew resistance (Fig. 2), indicating that the systemic resistance response was independent of salicylate signaling, but required an operative jasmonate defense pathway. For jar1-1, a reduced sensitivity to JA and MeJA which results in several defective JA-mediated responses, including ISR, was shown (Staswick et al. 1992, 1998, Pieterse et al. 1998). In addition, our experiments show the requirement of JIN1 (AtMYC2). This transcriptional regulator activates a subset of JA-regulated genes, specifically wound-induced genes, while other JA-regulated 5

6 genes are repressed (Lorenzo et al. 2004). Recently, requirement of AtMYC2 for ISR mediated by Pseudomonas fluorescens WCS417r, which results in priming of JA-regulated genes, was shown (Pozo et al. 2008). We also checked the extent of root colonization in different defense pathway mutants by determining P. indica DNA relative to plant DNA using Q-PCR. In NahG, npr1-1 and npr1-3 plants, we found a significant (Students t-test p<0.05) higher relative amount of fungal DNA (53, 55 and 35% increase, respectively, compared to Col-0). In contrast, relative amounts of fungal DNA were not significantly different in jin-1 and jar1-1 (43% and 0% increase). Despite these quantitative differences, a microscopic inspection revealed no qualitative differences in the tested genotypes. Enhanced colonization of npr1-1, npr1-3 and NahG plants could be explained by a defective SA defense pathway that restricts fungal development in wild type plants. On the contrary, ethylene (ET) signaling was required for P. indica colonization of the roots, as ethylene resistant 1-1 (etr1-1) and ethylene insensitive 2-1 (ein2-1) (Bleecker et al.1988, Guzman and Ecker 1990) were significantly less colonized. This finding made it impossible to experimentally determine the role of ET signaling for P. indicainduced systemic resistance. It was previously shown that ET is required for some, but not all bacterial strains inducing ISR (Iavicoli et al. 2003). To further clarify induction of signaling pathways, we analyzed expression of SA, JA and ETresponsive genes in leaves 14 days after root inoculation with P. indica. JA-responsive vegetative storage protein (VSP), plant defensin 1.2 (PDF1.2), and lipoxygenase 2 (LOX2) mrna levels were slightly, but not significantly, lower in P. indica colonized plants, whereas expression of SA-responsive pathogenesis-related 1 (PR1) and pathogenesis-related 5 (PR5), and ET-responsive ethylene response factor 1 (ERF1) were unaffected (Figure 3). Upon inoculation of leaves with G. orontii, transcripts of PR1 and PR5 were induced at 3 dpi, and, to a much higher degree at 6 dpi. ERF1 and PDF1.2 were induced by G. orontii at 6 dpi. In contrast to the other genes, a significant 8-fold higher expression of VSP was detected 3 days 6

7 after powdery mildew challenge in P. indica-colonized as compared with non-colonized plants (Fig. 3). This result is consistent with the observed loss of P. indica-mediated resistance in jin1, which is defective in JA-induced VSP expression (Berger et al. 1996). Enhanced VSP expression thus supports a role of JA in a primed response associated with powdery mildew resistance induced by P. indica. In the absence of a pathogen challenge, in contrast, mrna levels of SA, JA, and ET responsive genes were indistinguishable between P. indica colonized and non-colonized plants (Figure 3). This data is consistent with the notion that ISR is accompanied by weak systemic up- or down-regulation of transcripts without challenge, while a subset of JA-regulated defense genes, such as VSP, are stronger expressed upon pathogen challenge (Van Wees et al. 1999, Cartieaux et al. 2003, Verhagen et al. 2004). An induced ISR mechanism is also in accordance with the P. indica response of the two NPR1 mutants: npr1-3 is lacking a functional nuclear localization signal and as the npr1-3 mutant is not impaired in P. indica-mediated resistance, a nuclear localization of NPR1 is not required. However, npr1-3 has been shown to retain a cytosolic function regulating expression of some JA-dependent genes (Spoel et al. 2003), and we observed that P. indica-induced priming of VSP at 3 dpi is present in npr1-3. This indicates that JA-mediated priming responses induced by P. indica are still intact in the npr1-3 mutant. Consistently, the null mutant npr1-1 is impaired in cytosolic NPR1 function, in ISR, and in P. indica-mediated resistance to G. orontii. Analysis of gene expression in leaves of P. indica-colonized barley showed similar to Arabidopsis results presented here and to ISR no induction of JA or SA marker genes in the absence of a pathogen challenge (Waller et al. 2005, 2008). Recent results indicated a P. indica-dependent priming of NPR1-regulated genes in barley (Molitor et al., unpublished), suggesting that the fungus triggers common signaling pathways in mono- and dicotyledonous plants (Kogel and Langen 2005). 7

8 In conclusion, we suggest that P. indica-induced resistance requires jasmonate signaling, and is associated with priming of JA-regulated defense genes after powdery mildew challenge while it is independent of salicylate-based mechanisms. Furthermore, our results indicate that the fungus requires only cytosolic but not nuclear localization of NPR1 to induce systemic resistance. The P. indica-arabidopsis interaction has therefore the potential to become a model system for mechanistic investigations of induced resistance and plant-microbe symbiosis. Materials and Methods Arabidopsis thaliana seeds were incubated at 4 C for 48 h. After 14 days growth on agar plates, roots were either mock-inoculated or inoculated with ml -1 P. indica chlamydospores and plants were transferred to pots with sand/potting soil. P. indica was propagated as described (Waller et al. 2005). Golovinomyces orontii (syn. Erysiphe cichoracearum USC1) inoculum was spray-inoculated at a density of 4-6 conidia per mm 2. Microscopy was performed as described in Waller et al. (2005) and Deshmukh et al. (2006). Quantitative RT-PCR conditions, oligonucleotide primers and further methodological details are described in the Online Supplementary Material. Acknowledgements We are grateful to Yves Marco for providing seeds and Ralph Panstruga, MPI Köln, for providing Golovinomyces orontii. We thank Magali Bourdeau (Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis) for help in preparing microscopic images. Support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG (FOR666) is gratefully acknowledged. 8

9 References Berger, S., Bell, E. and Mullet, J.E. (1996) Two Methyl Jasmonate-Insensitive Mutants Show Altered Expression of AtVsp in Response to Methyl Jasmonate and Wounding. Plant Physiol. 111: Bleecker, A. B., Estelle, M. A., Somerville, C. and Kende, H. (1988) Insensitivity to ethylene conferred by a dominant mutation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Science 241: Cao, H., Bowling., S.A., Gordon, A.S. and Dong, X. (1994) Characterization of an Arabidopsis mutant that is nonresponsive to inducers of systemic acquired resistance. Plant Cell 6: Cartieaux, F., Thibaud, M.C., Zimmerli, L., Lessard, P., Sarrobert, C., David, P., Gerbaud, A., Robaglia, C., Somerville, S. and Nussaume, L. (2003) Transcriptome analysis of Arabidopsis colonized by a plant-growth promoting rhizobacterium reveals a general effect on disease resistance. Plant J. 36: Deshmukh, S.D., Hückelhoven, R., Schäfer, P., Imani, J., Sharma, M., Weiss, M., Waller, F. and Kogel, K.-H. (2006) The root endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica requires host cell death for proliferation during mutualistic symbiosis with barley. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: Deshmukh, S.D. and Kogel, K.-H. (2007) Piriformospora indica protects barley from root rot caused by Fusarium graminearum. J. Plant Dis. Protect. 114: Gaffney, T., Friedrich, L., Vernooij, B., Negretto, D., Nye, G., Uknes, S., Ward, E. and Ryals, J. (1993) Requirement for salicylic acid for the induction of systemic acquired resistance. Science 261: Guzman, P. and Ecker, J.R. (1990) Exploiting the triple response of Arabídopsís to identify ethylene-related mutants. Plant Cell 2:

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11 Spoel, S.H., Koornneef, A., Claessens, S.M., Korzelius, J.P., Van Pelt, J.A., Mueller, M.J., et al. (2003) NPR1 modulates cross-talk between salicylate- and jasmonate-dependent defense pathways through a novel function in the cytosol. Plant Cell 15: Staswick, P.E., Su, W. and Howell, S.H. (1992) Methyl jasmonate inhibition of root growth and induction of leaf protein are decreased in an Arabidopsis thaliana mutant. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89: Staswick, P.E., Yuen, G.Y. and Lehman, C.C. (1998) Jasmonate signaling mutants of Arabidopsis are susceptible to the soil fungus Pythium irregulare. Plant J. 16: Van Wees, S.C.M., Luijendijk, M., Smoorenburg, I., Van Loon, L.C. and Pieterse, C.M.J. (1999) Rhizobacteria-mediated induced systemic resistance (ISR) in Arabidopsis is not associated with a direct effect on expression of known defense-related genes but stimulates the expression of the jasmonate-inducible gene Atvsp upon challenge. Plant Mol. Biol. 41: Varma, A., Verma, S., Sudha, X., Sahay, N., Bütehorn, B. and Franken, P. (1999) Piriformospora indica, a cultivable plant-growth-promoting root endophyte. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65: Verhagen, B.W.M., Glazebrook, J., Zhu, T., Chang, H.-S., van Loon, L.C. and Pieterse, C.M. J. (2004) The transcriptome of rhizobacteria-induced systemic resistance in Arabidopsis. Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 17: Waller F., Achatz, B., Baltruschat, H., Fodor, J., Becker, K., et al. (2005) The endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica reprograms barley to salt-stress tolerance, disease resistance, and higher yield. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:

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13 Figure Legends Figure 1: Colonization of Arabidopsis roots with Piriformospora indica and its effect on the development of the leaf pathogen Golovinomyces orontii Arabidopsis root sections colonized by P. indica: (A) Fungal hyphae stained with WGA-AF 488 in roots 7 days post inoculation (dpi). Intercellular hyphae are closely aligned to rhizodermal cell walls, protruding short hyphal branches are characteristic for intracellular penetration attempts. The image was recorded with a confocal microscope (maximum projection of 12 optical sections). (B, C and D) Chlamydospore formation in Arabidopsis roots. Staining with 0.01% acid fuchsine-lactic acid visualizes chlamydospores 21 dpi. (B) bright-field image. (C) and (D) were obtained with a confocal microscope, representing the same root section in the transmission channel (C), and in the fluorescence channel (D) detecting chlamydospores stained with fuchsine-lactic acid (maximum projection of 30 optical sections). New chlamydospores are formed inside rhizodermal cells, on the root surface (B), and in root hairs (C and D). Bars in A, B, C and D represent 25 µm. (E, F) Development of G. orontii on Arabidopsis leaves of control plants (E) and P. indicacolonized plants (F). Fourteen days after root inoculation with P. indica, leaves were inoculated with conidia of the powdery mildew fungus G. orontii. Five days after challenge inoculation, leaves were cleared with ethanol and fungal structures stained with blue ink. E and F show a fraction of a mycelium derived from successful development of a single conidium. Reduced numbers of rod-shaped conidiophores are visible in P. indica-colonized plants as compared to control plants. Bars in E and F represent 100 µm. 13

14 Figure 2: Genotype-dependent enhanced resistance against powdery mildew after colonization with P. indica Fourteen days after root inoculation with P. indica- or mock-inoculation (control), leaves were inoculated with conidia of the powdery mildew fungus Golovinomyces orontii. Ten days post inoculation, leaves were detached, and amount of conidia per 10 mg of leaf fresh weight determined for at least five individually treated plants. Values are means and were set to 1 for P. indica non-inoculated Col-0 plants to enable comparison of experiments. White columns depict non-inoculated, black columns depict P. indica-inoculated plants of indicated genotypes, with bars indicating standard errors. Similar results were obtained in three independent experiments. Figure 3: Expression of hormone-responsive genes in leaves of Arabidopsis plants colonized with P. indica relative to non-colonized plants 0, 3, and 6 days after powdery mildew challenge The mrna levels of SA-responsive PR1 (A) and PR5 (B), JA-responsive VSP (C), PDF1.2 (D) and LOX2(E), and ET-responsive ERF1 (F) were analyzed in leaves at 0, 3 and 6 dpi by quantitative RT-PCR. Expression levels were calculated relative to the constitutively present ubiquitin 5 mrna. Relative expression values for control plants (white columns) and P. indica inoculated plants (black columns) were calibrated to the control 3 dpi time point set to 100. Values shown represent average values from three independent experiments, with error bars depicting standard errors. For PR1b, no error bars are given at time point 0 dpi, as transcript levels were not detectable in 2 of 3 experiments. 14

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