A novel mutant allele of SSI2 confers a better balance between disease resistance and plant growth inhibition on Arabidopsis thaliana.
BACKGROUND
Resistance and growth are opposing characteristics in plants. SA INSENSITIVITY OF npr1-5 (SSI2) encodes a stearoyl-ACP desaturase (S-ACP DES) that has previously been reported to simultaneously enhance resistance and repress growth.


RESULTS
Here, we characterize ssi2-2, a novel mutant allele of SSI2 that has two amino acid substitutions. Compared with wild-type and two other mutants of SSI2, ssi2-2 showed intermediate phenotypes in growth size, punctate necrosis, resistance to the bacterial pathogen Pst DC3000, salicylic acid (SA) content, pathogenesis-related (PR) gene levels and 18:1 content. These results indicate that ssi2-2 is a weak mutant of SSI2. Additionally, by using ssi2-2 as an intermediate control, a number of differentially expressed genes were identified in transcriptome profiling analysis. These results suggest that constitutive expression of defense-related genes and repression of IAA signaling-associated genes is present in all SSI2 mutants.


CONCLUSIONS
Taken together, our results suggest that the weak ssi2-2 mutant maintains a better balance between plant immunity and vegetative growth than other mutants, consequently providing a basis to genetically engineer disease resistance in crop plants.
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Agronomy, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Plant Protection, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271018, China.
Wei
W
Yang
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Agronomy, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Plant Protection, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271018, China.
Ran
R
Dong
Key Laboratory for Economic Plants and Biotechnology, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China.
Li
L
Liu
College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shanxi, 712100, China.|Present address: Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, Ghent University, Technologiepark 927, 9052, Ghent, Belgium.
Zhubing
Z
Hu
College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shanxi, 712100, China.
Jing
J
Li
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Agronomy, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Plant Protection, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271018, China.
Yong
Y
Wang
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Agronomy, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Plant Protection, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271018, China. xhding@sdau.edu.cn.
Xinhua
X
Ding
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Agronomy, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Plant Protection, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271018, China. zchu@sdau.edu.cn.
Zhaohui
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8320-7872
Z
Chu
Auxin; Leaf shape; Plant immunity; Salicylic acid; Stearoyl-ACP desaturase
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