Regulatory Modules Involved in the Degradation and Modification of Host Cell Walls During Cuscuta campestris Invasion

Ryusuke Yokoyama; Toshiya Yokoyama; Takeshi Kuroha; Jihwan Park; Koh Aoki; Kazuhiko Nishitani

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.904313

Regulatory Modules Involved in the Degradation and Modification of Host Cell Walls During Cuscuta campestris Invasion

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Jul 6:13:904313. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.904313. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ryusuke Yokoyama¹, Toshiya Yokoyama², Takeshi Kuroha³, Jihwan Park⁴, Koh Aoki⁴, Kazuhiko Nishitani²

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
² Faculty of Science, Kanagawa University, Hiratsuka, Japan.
³ Division of Crop Genome Editing Research, Institute of Agrobiological Science, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Japan.
⁴ Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai, Japan.

Abstract

Haustoria of parasitic plants have evolved sophisticated traits to successfully infect host plants. The degradation and modification of host cell walls enable the haustorium to effectively invade host tissues. This study focused on two APETALA2/ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR (ERF) genes and a set of the cell wall enzyme genes principally expressed during the haustorial invasion of Cuscuta campestris Yuncker. The orthogroups of the TF and cell wall enzyme genes have been implicated in the cell wall degradation and modification activities in the abscission of tomatoes, which are currently the phylogenetically closest non-parasitic model species of Cuscuta species. Although haustoria are generally thought to originate from root tissues, our results suggest that haustoria have further optimized invasion potential by recruiting regulatory modules from other biological processes.

Keywords: ERF; cell wall; haustorium; parasitic; regulatory module.