PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Singla-Rastogi, Meenu
AU  - Charvin, Magali
AU  - Thiébeauld, Odon
AU  - Perez-Quintero, Alvaro L
AU  - Ravet, Antinéa
AU  - Emidio-Fortunato, Antonio
AU  - Mendu, Venugopal
AU  - Navarro, Lionel
TI  - Plant Small RNA Species Direct Gene Silencing in Pathogenic Bacteria as well as Disease Protection
AID  - 10.1101/863902
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 863902
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/12/03/863902.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/12/03/863902.full
AB  - Plant small RNAs (sRNAs) and/or double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) trigger RNA interference (RNAi) in interacting eukaryotic pathogens or parasites. However, it is unknown whether this phenomenon could operate in bacterial phytopathogens, which lack a eukaryotic-like RNAi machinery. Here, we first show that Arabidopsis-encoded inverted repeat transgenes trigger silencing of Pseudomonas syringae heterologous reporter and endogenous virulence-associated genes during infection. Antibacterial Gene Silencing (AGS) of the latter was associated with a reduced pathogenesis, which was also observed upon application of corresponding plant-derived RNAs onto wild-type plants prior to infection. We additionally demonstrate that sRNAs directed against virulence factor transcripts were causal for silencing and pathogenesis reduction, while cognate long dsRNAs were inactive. Overall, this study provides the first evidence that plant sRNAs can directly reprogram gene expression in a phytopathogenic bacterium and may have wider implications in the understanding of how plants regulate transcriptome, community composition and genome evolution of associated bacteria.