Cell
Volume 161, Issue 5, 21 May 2015, Pages 1074-1088
Journal home page for Cell

Article
A Receptor Pair with an Integrated Decoy Converts Pathogen Disabling of Transcription Factors to Immunity

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2015.04.025Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Highlights

  • A bacterial lysine acetyltransferase targets multiple plant transcription factors

  • Target acetylation disables transcription-factor-DNA binding and host immunity

  • Immune receptor RRS1-R uses the same DNA-binding domain as an effector bait

  • Effector acetylation of RRS1-R converts disease susceptibility into robust defense

Summary

Microbial pathogens infect host cells by delivering virulence factors (effectors) that interfere with defenses. In plants, intracellular nucleotide-binding/leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs) detect specific effector interference and trigger immunity by an unknown mechanism. The Arabidopsis-interacting NLR pair, RRS1-R with RPS4, confers resistance to different pathogens, including Ralstonia solanacearum bacteria expressing the acetyltransferase effector PopP2. We show that PopP2 directly acetylates a key lysine within an additional C-terminal WRKY transcription factor domain of RRS1-R that binds DNA. This disrupts RRS1-R DNA association and activates RPS4-dependent immunity. PopP2 uses the same lysine acetylation strategy to target multiple defense-promoting WRKY transcription factors, causing loss of WRKY-DNA binding and transactivating functions needed for defense gene expression and disease resistance. Thus, RRS1-R integrates an effector target with an NLR complex at the DNA to switch a potent bacterial virulence activity into defense gene activation.

Cited by (0)

11

Co-first author