Baoyu Huai1, Qian Yang1, Xiaobo Wei2, Qinglin Pan1, Zhensheng Kang3, Jie Liu4. 1. State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China. 2. State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China. 3. State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China. kangzs@nwsuaf.edu.cn. 4. State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China. liujie2003@hotmail.com.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Biotrophic fungi make intimate contact with host cells to access nutrients. Sugar is considered as the main carbon sources absorbed from host cells by pathogens. Partition, exchanges and competition for sugar at plant-pathogen interfaces are controlled by sugar transporters. Previous studies have indicated that the leaf rust resistance (Lr) gene Lr67, a natural mutation of TaSTP13 encoding a wheat sugar transport protein, confers partial resistance to all three wheat rust species and powdery mildew possibly due to weakened sugar transport activity of TaSTP13 by heterodimerization. However, one major problem that remains unresolved concerns whether TaSTP13 participates in wheat susceptibility to rust and mildew. RESULTS: In this study, expression of TaSTP13 was highly induced in wheat leaves challenged by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) and certain abiotic treatments. TaSTP13 was localized in the plasma membrane and functioned as homooligomers. In addition, a functional domain for its transport activity was identified in yeast. Suppression of TaSTP13 reduced wheat susceptibility to Pst by barley stripe mosaic virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). While overexpression of TaSTP13 promoted Arabidopsis susceptibility to powdery mildew and led to increased glucose accumulation in the leaves. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that TaSTP13 is transcriptionally induced and contributes to wheat susceptibility to stripe rust, possibly by promoting cytoplasmic hexose accumulation for fungal sugar acquisition in wheat-Pst interactions.
BACKGROUND: Biotrophic fungi make intimate contact with host cells to access nutrients. Sugar is considered as the main carbon sources absorbed from host cells by pathogens. Partition, exchanges and competition for sugar at plant-pathogen interfaces are controlled by sugar transporters. Previous studies have indicated that the leaf rust resistance (Lr) gene Lr67, a natural mutation of TaSTP13 encoding a wheatsugar transport protein, confers partial resistance to all three wheat rust species and powdery mildew possibly due to weakened sugar transport activity of TaSTP13 by heterodimerization. However, one major problem that remains unresolved concerns whether TaSTP13 participates in wheat susceptibility to rust and mildew. RESULTS: In this study, expression of TaSTP13 was highly induced in wheat leaves challenged by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) and certain abiotic treatments. TaSTP13 was localized in the plasma membrane and functioned as homooligomers. In addition, a functional domain for its transport activity was identified in yeast. Suppression of TaSTP13 reduced wheat susceptibility to Pst by barley stripe mosaic virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). While overexpression of TaSTP13 promoted Arabidopsis susceptibility to powdery mildew and led to increased glucose accumulation in the leaves. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that TaSTP13 is transcriptionally induced and contributes to wheat susceptibility to stripe rust, possibly by promoting cytoplasmic hexose accumulation for fungal sugar acquisition in wheat-Pst interactions.
Authors: Mehwish Taj; Muhammad Sajjad; Mingju Li; Arooj Yasmeen; Muhammad Salman Mubarik; Sirisha Kaniganti; Chi He Journal: Front Genet Date: 2022-06-16 Impact factor: 4.772