Positive crosstalk of MAMP signaling pathways in rice cells

PLoS One. 2012;7(12):e51953. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051953. Epub 2012 Dec 14.

Abstract

Plants have evolved efficient defense mechanisms known as priming and synergy, both of which can mobilize defense responses more extensively against successive pathogen invasion or simultaneous stimulation by different signal molecules. However, the mechanisms underlying these phenomena were largely unknown. In the present study, we used cultured rice cells and combination of purified MAMP molecules as a model system to study the mechanisms of these phenomena. We found that the pretreatment of rice cells with a low concentration of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) apparently primed the defense responses induced by successive N-acetylchitooctaose (GN8) treatment. On the other hand, simultaneous treatment with GN8 and LPS also resulted in the similar enhancement of defense responses observed for the LPS-induced priming, indicating that the synergistic effects of these MAMPs are basically responsible for such enhancement of defense responses, though the effect could be interpreted as "priming" under some experimental conditions. These results also indicate that such a positive crosstalk of signaling cascade downstream of MAMP receptors seems to occur very rapidly, probably at early step(s) of signaling pathway. Comprehensive analysis of phytohormones revealed a specific enhancement of the synthesis of jasmonic acid (JA), both in the LPS pretreatment and also simultaneous treatment, indicating a role of JA in the enhancement of downstream responses.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cells, Cultured
  • Chitin / immunology
  • Cyclopentanes / immunology
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
  • Lipopolysaccharides / immunology
  • Lipopolysaccharides / pharmacology
  • Oligosaccharides / immunology
  • Oryza / drug effects
  • Oryza / genetics*
  • Oryza / immunology*
  • Oxylipins / immunology
  • Plant Growth Regulators / genetics
  • Plant Growth Regulators / immunology
  • Plant Proteins / genetics*
  • Plant Proteins / immunology*
  • Signal Transduction

Substances

  • Cyclopentanes
  • Lipopolysaccharides
  • Oligosaccharides
  • Oxylipins
  • Plant Growth Regulators
  • Plant Proteins
  • Chitin
  • N-acetylchitooctaose
  • jasmonic acid

Grants and funding

This research was supported in part by the Program for Promotion of Basic Research Activities for Innovative Bioscience (PROBRAIN, NS), Private Universities Foundation for the Development of Fundamental Research Strategies (NS) and also a Grant-in-Aid for JSPS fellow (YD). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.