Regulation of plant immune receptor accumulation through translational repression by a glycine-tyrosine-phenylalanine (GYF) domain protein

  1. Zhongshou Wu
  2. Shuai Huang
  3. Xiaobo Zhang
  4. Di Wu
  5. Shitou Xia  Is a corresponding author
  6. Xin Li  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of British Columbia, Canada
  2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University School of Medicine, United States
  3. Hunan Agricultural University, China

Abstract

Plant immunity is tightly regulated to ensure proper defense against surrounding microbial pathogens without triggering autoimmunity, which negatively impacts plant growth and development. Immune receptor levels are intricately controlled by RNA processing and post-translational modification events, such as ubiquitination. It remains unknown whether, and if yes, how, plant immune receptor homeostasis is regulated at the translational level. From a mutant, snc1-enhancing (muse) forward genetic screen, we identified MUSE11/EXA1, which negatively regulates nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptor mediated defence. EXA1 contains an evolutionarily conserved glycine-tyrosine-phenylalanine (GYF) domain that binds proline-rich sequences. Genetic and biochemical analysis revealed that loss of EXA1 leads to heightened NLR accumulation and enhanced resistance against virulent pathogens. EXA1 also associates with eIF4E initiation factors and the ribosome complex, likely contributing to the proper translation of target proteins. In summary, our study reveals a previously unknown mechanism of regulating NLR homeostasis through translational repression by a GYF protein.

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Author details

  1. Zhongshou Wu

    Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Shuai Huang

    Departments of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunobiology, Yale Systems Biology Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Xiaobo Zhang

    Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Di Wu

    Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Shitou Xia

    Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Phytohormones, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
    For correspondence
    xstone0505@yahoo.com
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Xin Li

    Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    For correspondence
    xinli@interchange.ubc.ca
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-6354-2021

Funding

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

  • Xin Li

University of British Columbia (Dewar Funds)

  • Xin Li

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Thorsten Nürnberger, University of Tubingen, Germany

Version history

  1. Received: November 26, 2016
  2. Accepted: March 14, 2017
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: March 31, 2017 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: April 24, 2017 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2017, Wu et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Zhongshou Wu
  2. Shuai Huang
  3. Xiaobo Zhang
  4. Di Wu
  5. Shitou Xia
  6. Xin Li
(2017)
Regulation of plant immune receptor accumulation through translational repression by a glycine-tyrosine-phenylalanine (GYF) domain protein
eLife 6:e23684.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.23684

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.23684

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