Arabidopsis VQ10 interacts with WRKY8 to modulate basal defense against Botrytis cinerea

作     者：Junqiu Chen Houping Wang Yang Li Jinjing Pan Yanru Hu Diqiu Yu 

作者机构：Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest EcologyXishuangbanna Tropical Botanical GardenChinese Academy of SciencesKunming650223China University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing 100049China 

出 版 物：《Journal of Integrative Plant Biology》 (植物学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2018年第60卷第10期

页      面：956-969页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 07[理学] 09[农学] 071007[理学-遗传学] 0904[农学-植物保护] 090401[农学-植物病理学] 0901[农学-作物学] 090102[农学-作物遗传育种] 

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31671274,91417307) the Innovative Team of Yunnan Province(2014HC017) 

主　　题：Arabidopsis VQ10 interacts with WRKY8 to modulate basal defense against Botrytis cinerea VQ 

摘      要：Recent studies in Arabidopsis have revealed that some vq motif-containing proteins physically interact with WRKY transcription factors; however, their specific biological functions are still poorly understood. In this study, we confirmed the interaction between VQ1o and WRKY8, and show that VQ1o and WRKY8 formed a complex in the plant cell nucleus. Yeast two-hybrid analysis showed that the middle region of WRKY8 and the vq motif of vqlo are critical for their interaction, and that this interaction promotes the DNA-binding activity of WRKY8. Further investigation revealed that the VqlO protein was exclusively localized in the nucleus, and VQ1o was predominantly expressed in siliques, vQ1o expression was strongly responsive to the necrotrophic fungal pathogen, Botrytis cinerea and defense-relatedhormones. Phenotypic analysis showed that disruption of VQlo increased mutant plants susceptibility to the fungal pathogen B. cinerea, whereas constitutive-expres- sion of VQlo enhanced resistance to B. cinerea. Consis- tent with these findings, expression of the defenserelated PLANT DEFENSIN1.2 （PDFt2） gene was decreased in vqlo mutant plants, after B. cinerea infection, but increased in vQ1o-overexpressing transgenic plants. Taken together, our findings provide evidence that VQlo physically interacts with WRKY8 and positively regulates plant basal resistance against the necrotrophic fungal pathogen B. cinerea.