Mutational analysis of the Ve1 immune receptor that mediates Verticillium resistance in tomato

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 9;9(6):e99511. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099511. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Pathogenic Verticillium species are economically important plant pathogens that cause vascular wilt diseases in hundreds of plant species. The Ve1 gene of tomato confers resistance against race 1 strains of Verticillium dahliae and V. albo-atrum. Ve1 encodes an extracellular leucine-rich repeat (eLRR) receptor-like protein (RLP) that serves as a cell surface receptor for recognition of the recently identified secreted Verticillium effector Ave1. To investigate recognition of Ave1 by Ve1, alanine scanning was performed on the solvent exposed β-strand/β-turn residues across the eLRR domain of Ve1. In addition, alanine scanning was also employed to functionally characterize motifs that putatively mediate protein-protein interactions and endocytosis in the transmembrane domain and the cytoplasmic tail of the Ve1 protein. Functionality of the mutant proteins was assessed by screening for the occurrence of a hypersensitive response upon co-expression with Ave1 upon Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transient expression (agroinfiltration). In order to confirm the agroinfiltration results, constructs encoding Ve1 mutants were transformed into Arabidopsis and the transgenes were challenged with race 1 Verticillium. Our analyses identified several regions of the Ve1 protein that are required for functionality.

MeSH terms

  • Alanine
  • Amino Acid Motifs
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Disease Resistance / genetics*
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions / genetics
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutation*
  • Phenotype
  • Plant Diseases / genetics*
  • Plant Diseases / microbiology*
  • Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs
  • Receptors, Immunologic / chemistry
  • Receptors, Immunologic / genetics*
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Solanum lycopersicum / genetics*
  • Solanum lycopersicum / microbiology*
  • Verticillium / physiology*

Substances

  • Receptors, Immunologic
  • Alanine

Grants and funding

These authors have no support or funding to report.