RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Plant Small RNA Species Direct Gene Silencing in Pathogenic Bacteria as well as Disease Protection
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 863902
DO 10.1101/863902
A1 Singla-Rastogi, Meenu
A1 Charvin, Magali
A1 Thiébeauld, Odon
A1 Perez-Quintero, Alvaro L
A1 Ravet, Antinéa
A1 Emidio-Fortunato, Antonio
A1 Mendu, Venugopal
A1 Navarro, Lionel
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/12/03/863902.abstract
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.