A fungal member of the Arabidopsis thaliana phyllosphere antagonizes Albugo laibachii via a GH25 lysozyme

  1. Katharina Eitzen
  2. Priyamedha Sengupta
  3. Samuel Kroll
  4. Eric Kemen  Is a corresponding author
  5. Gunther Doehlemann  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of Cologne, Germany
  2. Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany
  3. University of Tübingen, Germany

Abstract

Plants are not only challenged by pathogenic organisms, but also colonized by commensal microbes. The network of interactions these microbes establish with their host and amongst each other is suggested to contribute to the immune responses of plants against pathogens. In wild Arabidopsis thaliana populations, the oomycete pathogen Albugo laibachii plays an influential role in structuring the leaf phyllosphere. We show that the epiphytic yeast Moesziomyces bullatus ex Albugo on Arabidopsis, a close relative of pathogenic smut fungi, is an antagonistic member of the A. thaliana phyllosphere, which reduces infection of A. thaliana by A. laibachii. Combination of transcriptomics, reverse genetics and protein characterization identified a GH25 hydrolase with lysozyme activity as a major effector of this microbial antagonism. Our findings broaden the understanding of microbial interactions within the phyllosphere, provide insights into the evolution of epiphytic basidiomycete yeasts and pave the way for novel biocontrol strategies.

Data availability

Genome information and RNA sequencing have been submitted to NCBI Genbank and are available under the following links: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE148670

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Katharina Eitzen

    Institute for Plant Sciences and Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Priyamedha Sengupta

    Institute for Plant Sciences and Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Samuel Kroll

    AG Kemen, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Eric Kemen

    Center for Plant Molecular Biology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
    For correspondence
    eric.kemen@uni-tuebingen.de
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Gunther Doehlemann

    Institute for Plant Sciences and Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
    For correspondence
    g.doehlemann@uni-koeln.de
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-7353-8456

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SPP 2125 DECRyPT)

  • Katharina Eitzen
  • Priyamedha Sengupta

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EXC-2048/1,Project ID 390686111)

  • Katharina Eitzen

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

Copyright

© 2021, Eitzen 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.

Metrics

  • 2,449
    views
  • 382
    downloads
  • 32
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Katharina Eitzen
  2. Priyamedha Sengupta
  3. Samuel Kroll
  4. Eric Kemen
  5. Gunther Doehlemann
(2021)
A fungal member of the Arabidopsis thaliana phyllosphere antagonizes Albugo laibachii via a GH25 lysozyme
eLife 10:e65306.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65306

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65306

Further reading

    1. Plant Biology
    Zongju Yang, Tianqi Bai ... Chen Chen
    Research Article

    As a master regulator of seed development, Leafy Cotyledon 1 (LEC1) promotes chlorophyll (Chl) biosynthesis in Arabidopsis, but the mechanism underlying this remains poorly understood. Here, we found that loss of function of OsNF-YB7, a LEC1 homolog of rice, leads to chlorophyllous embryo, indicating that OsNF-YB7 plays an opposite role in Chl biosynthesis in rice compared with that in Arabidopsis. OsNF-YB7 regulates the expression of a group of genes responsible for Chl biosynthesis and photosynthesis by directly binding to their promoters. In addition, OsNF-YB7 interacts with Golden 2-Like 1 (OsGLK1) to inhibit the transactivation activity of OsGLK1, a key regulator of Chl biosynthesis. Moreover, OsNF-YB7 can directly repress OsGLK1 expression by recognizing its promoter in vivo, indicating the involvement of OsNF-YB7 in multiple regulatory layers of Chl biosynthesis in rice embryo. We propose that OsNF-YB7 functions as a transcriptional repressor to regulate Chl biosynthesis in rice embryo.

    1. Plant Biology
    Yuanyuan Bu, Xingye Dong ... Shenkui Liu
    Research Article Updated

    Urea is intensively utilized as a nitrogen fertilizer in agriculture, originating either from root uptake or from catabolism of arginine by arginase. Despite its extensive use, the underlying physiological mechanisms of urea, particularly its adverse effects on seed germination and seedling growth under salt stress, remain unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that salt stress induces excessive hydrolysis of arginine-derived urea, leading to an increase in cytoplasmic pH within seed radical cells, which, in turn, triggers salt-induced inhibition of seed germination (SISG) and hampers seedling growth. Our findings challenge the long-held belief that ammonium accumulation and toxicity are the primary causes of SISG, offering a novel perspective on the mechanism underlying these processes. This study provides significant insights into the physiological impact of urea hydrolysis under salt stress, contributing to a better understanding of SISG.