University of California, Berkeley | Plant & Microbial Biology
A role for small RNA in regulating innate immunity during plant growth
| Title | A role for small RNA in regulating innate immunity during plant growth |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2018 |
| Authors | Deng Y, Wang J, Tung J, Liu D, Zhou Y, He S, Du Y, Baker B, Li F |
| Journal | PLOS Pathogens |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Type of Article | Journal |
| Abstract | Author summary In plants, nucleotide-binding (NB) leucine-rich repeat (LRR) receptors (NLR) mediate pathogen-specific effector triggered immunity and are widely used in breeding to generate pathogen-resistant crops. However, dysregulation of NLR expression can inhibit plant growth and how NLR expression and function are regulated in different stages of plant growth is poorly understood. Using a high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics approach, we found an overall increase in NLR expression, but expression of NLR-targeting sRNA during plant growth was decreased. We also used resistance to tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) mediated by the resistance gene N as a model system to study the biological significance of growth regulation of NLR by miRNAs. We found that N-mediated TMV immunity strengthened and N transcript levels increased during plant maturation. Using genetic analysis, we showed that up-regulation of N was due to transcriptional down-regulation of the N-targeting miR6019/6020 cluster during plant growth. We also showed that sRNA-mediated growth regulation of N expression and function was conserved between tobacco and tomato plants. This study therefore reveals a role for miRNAs in regulating innate immunity during plant growth. |
| DOI | 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006756 |
