Plant nucleotide-binding, leucine-rich, repeat-containing proteins (NLRs) play important roles in plant immunity. NLR expression and function are tightly regulated by multiple mechanisms. In this study, a conserved serine/arginine-rich protein (SR protein) was identified through the yeast one-hybrid screening of a tobacco cDNA library using DNA fragments from the N gene, an NLR that confers immunity to tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). This SR protein showed an interaction with a 3' genomic regulatory sequence (GRS) and has a potential role in regulating the alternative splicing of N. Thus, it was named SR regulator for N, abbreviated SR4N. Further study showed that SR4N plays a positive role in N-mediated cell death but a negative role in N protein accumulation. SR4N also promotes multiple virus replications in co-expression experiments, and this enhancement may not function through RNA silencing suppression, as it did not enhance 35S-GFP expression in co-infiltration experiments. Bioinformatic and molecular studies revealed that SR4N belongs to the SR2Z subtype of the SR protein family, which was conserved in both dicots and monocots, and its roles in repressing viral immunity and triggering cell death were also conserved. Our study revealed new roles for SR2Z family proteins in plant immunity against viruses.
Keywords: N gene; RNA silencing; SR proteins; cell death; plant immunity; tobacco mosaic virus.