Herbivory-responsive calmodulin-like protein CML9 does not guide jasmonate-mediated defenses in Arabidopsis thaliana

PLoS One. 2018 May 16;13(5):e0197633. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197633. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Calcium is an important second messenger in plants that is released into the cytosol early after recognition of various environmental stimuli. Decoding of such calcium signals by calcium sensors is the key for the plant to react appropriately to each stimulus. Several members of Calmodulin-like proteins (CMLs) act as calcium sensors and some are known to mediate both abiotic and biotic stress responses. Here, we study the role of the Arabidopsis thaliana CML9 in different stress responses. CML9 was reported earlier as defense regulator against Pseudomonas syringae. In contrast to salicylic acid-mediated defense against biotrophic pathogens such as P. syringae, defenses against herbivores and necrotrophic fungi are mediated by jasmonates. We demonstrate that CML9 is induced upon wounding and feeding of the insect herbivore Spodoptera littoralis. However, neither different CML9 loss-of-function mutant lines nor overexpression lines were impaired upon insect feeding. No difference in herbivore-induced phytohormone elevation was detected in cml9 lines. The defense against the spider mite Tetranychus urticae was also unaffected. In addition, cml9 mutant lines showed a wild type-like reaction to the necrotrophic fungus Alternaria brassicicola. Thus, our data suggest that CML9 might be a regulator involved only in the defense against biotrophic pathogens, independent of jasmonates. In addition, our data challenge the involvement of CML9 in plant drought stress response. Taken together, we suggest that CML9 is a specialized rather than a general regulator of stress responses in Arabidopsis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alternaria
  • Animals
  • Arabidopsis / metabolism*
  • Arabidopsis / physiology
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / metabolism*
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / physiology
  • Calmodulin / metabolism*
  • Calmodulin / physiology
  • Cyclopentanes / metabolism*
  • Herbivory
  • Oxylipins / metabolism*
  • Plant Diseases / microbiology
  • Plant Growth Regulators / metabolism*
  • Plant Growth Regulators / physiology
  • Tetranychidae

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • CaM9 protein, Arabidopsis
  • Calmodulin
  • Cyclopentanes
  • Oxylipins
  • Plant Growth Regulators
  • jasmonic acid

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science, BMBF, Germany (SPIRED, KMU-i 031A216B) to DV and the Max Planck society. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.