A C2H2-type Zinc Finger Protein TaZFP8-5B Negatively Regulates Disease Resistance

Overview

Journal BMC Plant Biol

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 Nov 23

PMID 39578730

Authors

Lin Huang

Ruijie Xie

Yanling Hu

Lilin Du

Fang Wang

Xueer Zhao

Yanyan Huang

Xuejiao Chen

Ming Hao

Qiang Xu

Lihua Feng

Bihua Wu

Zhenzhen Wei

Lianquan Zhang

Dengcai Liu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) are important regulators in abiotic and biotic stress tolerance in plants. However, the role of the ZFPs in wheat responding to pathogen infection is poorly understood.

Results: In this study, we found TaZFP8-5B was down-regulated by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) infection. TaZFP8-5B possesses a single C2H2-type zinc finger domain with a plant-specific QALGGH motif, and an EAR motif (LxLxL) at the C-terminus. The EAR motif represses the trans-activation ability of TaZFP8-5B. Knocking down the expression of TaZFP8 by virus-induced gene silencing increased wheat resistance to Pst, whereas TaZFP8-5B-overexpressing reduced wheat resistance to stripe rust and rice resistance to Magnaporthe oryzae, suggesting that TaZFP8-5B plays a negative role in the modulation of plant immunity. Using bimolecular fluorescence complementation, split-luciferase, and yeast two-hybrid assays, we showed that TaZFP8-5B interacted with a wheat calmodulin-like protein TaCML21. Knock-down of TaCML21 reduced wheat resistance to Pst.

Conclusions: This study characterized the function of TaZFP8-5B and its interacting protein TaCML21. Our findings provide a new perspective on a regulatory module made up of TaCML21-TaZFP8-5B in plant immunity.

References

Takatsuji H . Zinc-finger proteins: the classical zinc finger emerges in contemporary plant science. Plant Mol Biol. 1999; 39(6):1073-8. DOI: 10.1023/a:1006184519697. View

Wang N, Tang C, Fan X, He M, Gan P, Zhang S . Inactivation of a wheat protein kinase gene confers broad-spectrum resistance to rust fungi. Cell. 2022; 185(16):2961-2974.e19. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.027. View

Ding W, Wang Y, Fang W, Gao S, Li X, Xiao K . TaZAT8, a C2H2-ZFP type transcription factor gene in wheat, plays critical roles in mediating tolerance to Pi deprivation through regulating P acquisition, ROS homeostasis and root system establishment. Physiol Plant. 2016; 158(3):297-311. DOI: 10.1111/ppl.12467. View

Fromm H, Finkler A . Repression and De-repression of Gene Expression in the Plant Immune Response: The Complexity of Modulation by Ca²⁺ and Calmodulin. Mol Plant. 2015; 8(5):671-3. DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2015.01.019. View

Manser B, Zbinden H, Herren G, Steger J, Isaksson J, Braunlich S . Wheat zinc finger protein TaZF interacts with both the powdery mildew AvrPm2 protein and the corresponding wheat Pm2a immune receptor. Plant Commun. 2023; 5(5):100769. PMC: 11121201. DOI: 10.1016/j.xplc.2023.100769. View

Gourcilleau D, Lenne C, Armenise C, Moulia B, Julien J, Bronner G . Phylogenetic study of plant Q-type C2H2 zinc finger proteins and expression analysis of poplar genes in response to osmotic, cold and mechanical stresses. DNA Res. 2011; 18(2):77-92. PMC: 3077037. DOI: 10.1093/dnares/dsr001. View

Zhang H, Liu Y, Wen F, Yao D, Wang L, Guo J . A novel rice C2H2-type zinc finger protein, ZFP36, is a key player involved in abscisic acid-induced antioxidant defence and oxidative stress tolerance in rice. J Exp Bot. 2014; 65(20):5795-809. PMC: 4203119. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/eru313. View

Jones J, Dangl J . The plant immune system. Nature. 2006; 444(7117):323-9. DOI: 10.1038/nature05286. View

Wang Y, Hu Y, Gong F, Jin Y, Xia Y, He Y . Identification and Mapping of QTL for Stripe Rust Resistance in the Chinese Wheat Cultivar Shumai126. Plant Dis. 2021; 106(4):1278-1285. DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-09-21-1946-RE. View

10.

Ngou B, Ahn H, Ding P, Jones J . Mutual potentiation of plant immunity by cell-surface and intracellular receptors. Nature. 2021; 592(7852):110-115. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03315-7. View

11.

Zeng H, Xu L, Singh A, Wang H, Du L, Poovaiah B . Involvement of calmodulin and calmodulin-like proteins in plant responses to abiotic stresses. Front Plant Sci. 2015; 6:600. PMC: 4532166. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2015.00600. View

12.

Holzberg S, Brosio P, Gross C, Pogue G . Barley stripe mosaic virus-induced gene silencing in a monocot plant. Plant J. 2002; 30(3):315-27. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-313x.2002.01291.x. View

13.

Cheuk A, Ouellet F, Houde M . The barley stripe mosaic virus expression system reveals the wheat C2H2 zinc finger protein TaZFP1B as a key regulator of drought tolerance. BMC Plant Biol. 2020; 20(1):144. PMC: 7140352. DOI: 10.1186/s12870-020-02355-x. View

14.

Liu Y, Khan A, Gan Y . C2H2 Zinc Finger Proteins Response to Abiotic Stress in Plants. Int J Mol Sci. 2022; 23(5). PMC: 8911255. DOI: 10.3390/ijms23052730. View

15.

Wang K, Ding Y, Cai C, Chen Z, Zhu C . The role of C2H2 zinc finger proteins in plant responses to abiotic stresses. Physiol Plant. 2018; 165(4):690-700. DOI: 10.1111/ppl.12728. View

16.

Kagale S, Rozwadowski K . EAR motif-mediated transcriptional repression in plants: an underlying mechanism for epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Epigenetics. 2010; 6(2):141-6. PMC: 3278782. DOI: 10.4161/epi.6.2.13627. View

17.

Yaniv E, Raats D, Ronin Y, Korol A, Grama A, Bariana H . Evaluation of marker-assisted selection for the stripe rust resistance gene , introgressed from wild emmer wheat. Mol Breed. 2016; 35(1). PMC: 5091809. DOI: 10.1007/s11032-015-0238-0. View

18.

Cheuk A, Houde M . Genome wide identification of C1-2i zinc finger proteins and their response to abiotic stress in hexaploid wheat. Mol Genet Genomics. 2015; 291(2):873-90. DOI: 10.1007/s00438-015-1152-1. View

19.

Monteiro F, Nishimura M . Structural, Functional, and Genomic Diversity of Plant NLR Proteins: An Evolved Resource for Rational Engineering of Plant Immunity. Annu Rev Phytopathol. 2018; 56:243-267. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-phyto-080417-045817. View

20.

Pruitt R, Locci F, Wanke F, Zhang L, Saile S, Joe A . The EDS1-PAD4-ADR1 node mediates Arabidopsis pattern-triggered immunity. Nature. 2021; 598(7881):495-499. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03829-0. View