title: Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato hijacks the Arabidopsis abscisic acid signalling pathway to cause disease.
abstract: We have found that a major target for effectors secreted by Pseudomonas syringae is the abscisic acid (ABA) signalling pathway. Microarray data identified a prominent group of effector-induced genes that were associated with ABA biosynthesis and also responses to this plant hormone. Genes upregulated by effector delivery share a 42% overlap with ABA-responsive genes and are also components of networks induced by osmotic stress and drought. Strongly induced were NCED3, encoding a key enzyme of ABA biosynthesis, and the abscisic acid insensitive 1 (ABI1) clade of genes encoding protein phosphatases type 2C (PP2Cs) involved in the regulation of ABA signalling. Modification of PP2C expression resulting in ABA insensitivity or hypersensitivity led to restriction or enhanced multiplication of bacteria, respectively. Levels of ABA increased rapidly during bacterial colonisation. Exogenous ABA application enhanced susceptibility, whereas colonisation was reduced in an ABA biosynthetic mutant. Expression of the bacterial effector AvrPtoB in planta modified host ABA signalling. Our data suggest that a major virulence strategy is effector-mediated manipulation of plant hormone homeostasis, which leads to the suppression of defence responses.
authors.affiliation: Biology Division, Imperial College London, Wye Campus, Wye, UK.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Torres-Zabala
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Truman
authors.forename: Mark H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lafforgue
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Mansfield
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rodriguez Egea
authors.forename: Laszlo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bögre
authors.forename: Murray
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grant
mesh_terms: D000040:Abscisic Acid / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism*; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D005936:Glucans / Q000378:metabolism; D009154:Mutation; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D044224:Pseudomonas syringae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D005936:Glucans; D000040:Abscisic Acid; C048306:callose