激发子诱导植物抗性的作用机制

激发子是能诱导植物任何防卫反应的分子,在原生质膜上存在着其特异高度亲合的蛋白质受体,激发子通过信号识别,信号转导和防卫基因表达调控三个环节诱导植物产生抗病性。     

水杨酸在植物抗病中的作用

水杨酸是一种重要的能激活植物抗病防卫反应的内源信号分子。本文首先介绍了水杨酸的基本性质及水杨酸在植物抗病中的作用,然后从水杨酸与水杨酸结合蛋白的相互作用以及水杨酸介导的信号传导途径与非水杨酸介导的信号途径等方面初步探讨了水杨酸诱导植物抗病性的作用机制,最后总结了研究水杨酸作用机制对植物抗性生理和抗性分子生物学发展的意义。     

水杨酸在植物抗病中的作用

水杨酸是一种重要的能激活植物抗病防卫反应的内源信号分子,本文首先介绍了水杨酸的基本性质及水杨酸在植物抗病中的作用,然后从水杨酸与水杨酸结合蛋白的相互作用以及水杨酸介导的信号传导途径与非水杨酸介导的信号途径等方面初步探讨了水杨酸诱导植物抗病性的作用机制,最后总结了研究水杨酸作用机制对植物抗性生理和抗性分子生物学发展的意义。     

寡聚糖诱导的植物抗性信号转导

来源于植物及其病原体细胞壁的寡聚糖,可作为激发子诱导植物细胞发生抗性反应,寡聚糖信号被植物细胞识别后,可迅速引起质膜去极化,离子通道开放,胞外培养基碱化等瞬间反应;还可通过硬脂酸代谢途径合成茉莉酸信号分子,诱导抗性相关基因的表达。     

水杨酸诱导植物抗性的研究进展

水杨酸是一种重要的内源信号分子,能够激活一系列植物抗性防卫反应.为了研究这种抗性反应,对水杨酸诱导植物抗病性、抗旱性、抗盐性及与乙烯作用的新进展作了概述,并从水杨酸与过氧化氢及其代谢酶类相互作用的角度探讨了水杨酸诱导植物抗性生理的分子机理.     

植食性昆虫唾液效应子和激发子的研究进展

植食性昆虫与寄主植物通过协同进化形成了复杂的防御和反防御机制。本文系统综述了昆虫唾液效应子和激发子在植物与昆虫互作中的作用及机理。昆虫取食中释放的唾液激发子被植物识别而激活植物早期免疫反应,昆虫也能从口腔分泌效应子到植物体内抑制免疫;抗性植物则利用抗性(R)蛋白识别昆虫无毒效应子,启动效应子诱导的免疫反应,而昆虫又进化出多种方式来躲避植物R蛋白的识别。总之,在这场军备竞赛中,昆虫的唾液成分决定着昆虫能否取食成功。取食过程中,咀嚼式口器害虫分泌大量酶类到植物体内,而刺吸式害虫则分泌胶状和水样唾液到植物中,它们都利用激发子和效应子去调控植物的免疫防御反应。分析现已报道的昆虫效应子发现其作用机制各有不同,具体表现为影响植物早期防御信号,调控植物激素通路及其他通路,或靶向小分子RNA通路。本文还综述了昆虫激发子的最新进展,揭示激发子可以通过诱导释放植物次生代谢物以及调控激素水平、Ca²⁺内流和活性氧爆发增强植物抗性。最后对昆虫效应子的分泌特性、寄主特异性和多功能性作了分析,并对无毒效应子及其对应的植物R基因,以及激发子的模式识别受体的研究进行了展望。     

虫害诱导植物防御的分子机理研究进展

从虫害诱导的系统损伤信号、昆虫特异性激发子、间接防御、直接防御和负防御等方面,综述了虫害诱导植物防御的最新研究进展.在植物与昆虫的相互进化过程中,植物利用诱导防御物质对付昆虫的危害,昆虫则利用其特有的激发子降低植物的防御反应.文中比较了间接防御涉及的4种代谢途径,以及诱导挥发物释放的机制;阐明了虫害诱导植物直接防御的概念、防御物质及其作用机理;分析了虫害诱导植物负防御的机制.同时,也强调了虫害诱导林木防御反应的分子机理.     

一氧化氮对植物重金属胁迫抗性的影响研究进展

一氧化氮(NO)作为一种重要的信号分子,在调节植物重金属胁迫抗性方面上起着非常重要的作用。综述了NO在植物体内的产生途径,重金属胁迫下植物体内内源NO含量的变化以及外源NO与内源NO对植物重金属胁迫抗性的影响。大量研究表明外源NO能够增强植物对重金属胁迫的抗性,一方面是通过增强植物细胞的抗氧化系统或直接清除活性氧,另一方面是通过影响植物对重金属的吸收以及重金属在植物细胞内的分布。然而内源NO在调节植物重金属胁迫抗性上的功能角色仍存在争议。有些研究表明内源NO是有益的,能够缓解重金属胁迫诱导的毒性;但是也有证据表明内源NO是有害的,能够通过促进植物对重金属的吸收以及对植物螯合素进行S-亚硝基化弱化其解毒功能,从而参与重金属诱导的毒害反应和细胞凋亡过程。     

微生物诱导的植物系统抗性

综述了由植物病原菌和非病原性的根际促生菌诱导产生的两种植物系统抗性:系统获得性抗性(SAR)和系统诱导抗性(ISR),比较了两类系统抗性的诱导、信号分子和机理的异同点,阐述了信号分子水杨酸在系统获得性抗性诱导过程中的作用及茉莉酸和乙烯在系统诱导抗性产生过程中的作用。     

一氧化氮在植物抗病反应中的信号作用

近年来的研究发现,一氧化氮(nitricoxide,NO)在植物抗病反应中具有重要作用,本文概述了植物中NO的来源、NO在植物抗病反应中的信号传导作用、NO与植物中其它信号分子之间的相互作用以及NO的研究进展。     

Endogenous peptide elicitors in higher plants

Plant defense responses against invading organisms are initiated through the perception of molecules associated with attacking microbes and herbivores by pattern recognition receptors. In addition to elicitor molecules derived from attacking organisms, plants recognize host-derived molecules. These endogenous elicitors induce and amplify the defense responses against invading organisms both locally and systemically. Several classes of plant-derived molecules elicit defense, including cell wall fragments and peptides. Endogenous peptide elicitors have been discovered in species across the plant kingdom, and their role regulating immunity to both herbivores and pathogens is becoming increasingly appreciated. In this review, we will focus on the five known endogenous peptide elicitor families, summarize their properties, and discuss research goals to further understanding of plant innate immunity.     

Elicitors and priming agents initiate plant defense responses

Biotic elicitors produced by plant pathogens or herbivore pests rapidly activate a range of plant chemical defenses when translocated to plant tissue. The fatty acid conjugate volicitin has proven to be a robust elicitor model for studying herbivore-induced plant defense responses. Here we review the role of insect-derived volicitin (N-[17-hydroxylinolenoyl]-L-glutamine) as an authentic elicitor of defense responses, specifically as an activator of signal volatiles that attract natural enemies of herbivore pests. Comparisons are drawn between volicitin as an elicitor of plant defenses and two other classes of signaling molecules, C₆ green-leaf volatiles and C₄ bacterial volatiles that appear to prime plant defenses thereby enhancing the capacity to mobilize cellular defense responses when a plant is faced with herbivore or pathogen attack.     

Cholic acid, a bile acid elicitor of hypersensitive cell death, pathogenesis-related protein synthesis, and phytoalexin accumulation in rice

When plants interact with certain pathogens, they protect themselves by generating various defense responses. These defense responses are induced by molecules called elicitors. Since long ago, composts fermented by animal feces have been used as a fertilizer in plant cultivation, and recently, have been known to provide suppression of plant disease. Therefore, we hypothesized that the compounds from animal feces may function as elicitors of plant defense responses. As a result of examination of our hypothesis, an elicitor of rice defense responses was isolated from human feces, and its structure was identified as cholic acid (CA), a primary bile acid in animals. Treatment of rice (Oryza sativa) leaves with CA induced the accumulation of antimicrobial compounds (phytoalexins), hypersensitive cell death, pathogenesis-related (PR) protein synthesis, and increased resistance to subsequent infection by virulent pathogens. CA induced these defense responses more rapidly than did fungal cerebroside, a sphingolipid elicitor isolated from the rice pathogenic fungus Magnaporthe grisea. Furthermore, fungal cerebroside induced both types of rice phytoalexins, phytocassanes and momilactones, whereas CA mainly induced phytocassanes, but not momilactones. In the structure-activity relationship analysis, the hydroxyl groups at C-7 and C-12, and the carboxyl group at C-24 of CA contributed to the elicitor activity. These results indicate that CA is specifically recognized by rice and is a different type of elicitor from fungal cerebroside. This report demonstrated that bile acid induced defense responses in plants.     

Early signaling events induced by elicitors of plant defenses

Plant pathogen attacks are perceived through pathogen-issued compounds or plant-derived molecules that elicit defense reactions. Despite the large variety of elicitors, general schemes for cellular elicitor signaling leading to plant resistance can be drawn. In this article, we review early signaling events that happen after elicitor perception, including reversible protein phosphorylations, changes in the activities of plasma membrane proteins, variations in free calcium concentrations in cytosol and nucleus, and production of nitric oxide and active oxygen species. These events occur within the first minutes to a few hours after elicitor perception. One specific elicitor transduction pathway can use a combination or a partial combination of such events which can differ in kinetics and intensity depending on the stimulus. The links between the signaling events allow amplification of the signal transduction and ensure specificity to get appropriate plant defense reactions. This review first describes the early events induced by cryptogein, an elicitor of tobacco defense reactions, in order to give a general scheme for signal transduction that will be use as a thread to review signaling events monitored in different elicitor or plant models.     

Involvement of nitric oxide in elicitor-induced defense responses and secondary metabolism of Taxus chinensis cells

This work was to characterize the generation of nitric oxide (NO) in Taxus chinensis cells induced by a fungal elicitor extracted from Fusarium oxysporum mycelium and the signal role of NO in the elicitation of plant defense responses and secondary metabolite accumulation. The fungal elicitor at 10-100 microg/ml (carbohydrate equivalent) induced a rapid and dose-dependent NO production in the Taxus cell culture, which exhibited a biphasic time course, reaching the first plateau within 1 h and the second within 12 h of elicitor treatment. The NO donor sodium nitroprusside potentiated elicitor-induced H2O2 production and cell death but had little influence on elicitor-induced membrane K+ efflux and H+ influx (medium alkalinization). NO inhibitors Nomega-nitro-L-arginine and 2-phenyl-4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-imidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide partially blocked the elicitor-induced H2O2 production and membrane ion fluxes. Moreover, the NO inhibitors suppressed elicitor-induced activation of phenylalanine ammonium-lyase and accumulation of diterpenoid taxanes (paclitaxel and baccatin III). These results suggest that NO plays a signal role in the elicitor-induced responses and secondary metabolism activities in the Taxus cells.     

MAP kinase cascades in elicitor signal transduction

 Protein kinases play important roles in elicitor signal transduction. In this article, I describe the current view of the role of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades in elicitor signal transduction of plant cells based on our own research and recent developments in this field. In the past several years, it has become apparent that MAPK cascades play important roles in elicitor signal transduction in plants. Our early studies demonstrated the identification of p47 MAPK in tobacco as an elicitor-responsive protein kinase and possible involvement of p47 MAPK in elicitor signal transduction to induce defense responses, including defense gene expression and hypersensitive cell death. However, the molecular identity of p47 MAPK is still unclear. Recent important studies suggest that tobacco MAPK cascades that include SIPK, and/or WIPK, and NtMEK2, an upstream kinase for both SIPK and WIPK, have a crucial function in induction of defense responses and hypersensitive cell death. The orthologs of these protein kinases in Arabidopsis and alfalfa are also suggested to have similar functions. Furthermore, the identification of loss-of-function mutation in Arabidopsis reveals a negative regulatory role for putative MAPK cascades in plant defense mechanisms. Received: February 7, 2002 / Accepted: February 25, 2002     

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) as defenses against a broad range of plant fungal infections and case study on ROS employed by crops against Verticillium dahliae wilts

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are natural by products of cellular metabolism that were initially considered only deleterious towards the cellular macromolecules. Research advances have broadened the scope and now numerous studies are available rendering ROS molecules essential for plants to combat several biotic and abiotic stresses after being involved in essential defense mechanisms such as hypersensitivity reactions (HR) that lead to programmed cell death (PCD), cell wall reinforcement by cross-linking of cellular glycoproteins with other entities and salicylic acid mediated signal transduction pathways. During fungal attack, the fungal components like chitin and other elicitors activates the plant immune responses that employ ROS with other molecules like nitric oxide (NO), calcium ions to fight back the pathogen attack and restrict its spread to further plant parts. Here, several defense mechanisms mediated by ROS are discussed. Verticillium dahliae is one of the dreadful fungal pathogen to plants that cause wilts in many important plant species causing huge economic burden in food sector. The major constraint in its scenario being the deficit of field management systems based on chemicals or agronomics. It is evident by studying their interactions with the variety of hosts that in most cases, ROS mediated defenses play a key central role via cross-talk with other mechanisms making them a potential target for transgenics as well as resistant genotype selection.     

Phytohormonal signaling in plant responses to aphid feeding

Aphid feeding induces various defense signaling mechanisms in plants. The recognition of feeding activities by plants occurs through the use of transmembrane pattern recognition receptors (PRRS) or, acting largely inside the cell, polymorphic nucleotide-binding leucine-rich-repeat (NB-LRR) protein products, encoded by most R genes. Activation may induce defensive reactions which are the result of highly coordinated sequential changes at the cellular level comprising, among other changes, the synthesis of signaling molecules. The ensuing plant responses are followed by the transmission of defense response signal cascades. Signals are mediated by bioactive endogenous molecules, i.e. phytohormones, such as jasmonic acid (JA), salicylic acid (SA), ethylene (ET), abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellic acid (GA) and free radicals such as hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and nitric oxide (NO) which independently provide direct chemical resistance. Plant-induced defenses are also regulated by a network of inter-connecting signaling pathways, in which JA, SA, and ET play dominant roles. Both synergistic and inhibitory aspects of the cross-talk among these pathways have been reported. This paper presents molecular mechanisms of plant response to aphid feeding, the precise activation of various endogenous bioactive molecules signaling in the response of many plant species and their participation in the regulation of numerous defense genes, which lead to a specific metabolic effect. Selected important points in signal transduction pathways were also discussed in studies on plant response to aphid feeding.     

Development of a colorimetric assay for determining the amount of H2O2 generated in tobacco cells in response to elicitors and its application to study of the structure-activity relationship of flagellin-derived peptides

Plants exhibit various defense responses after recognizing elicitor molecules derived from pathogenic microorganisms and host plants. In this study, we developed an improved colorimetric assay for quantifying the generation of H2O2 in plant cells, one of the defense responses, to evaluate elicitor activity quantitatively. H2O2 is detected using a dye, N-(carboxymethylaminocarbonyl)-4,4'-bis(dimethylamino)-diphenylamine sodium salt (DA-64), which can be measured by conventional spectrometers in a highly sensitive and quantitative manner. Using this method, we successfully measured the elicitor activity of flagellin-derived peptides in cultured tobacco cells, and identified several structural features of the peptides important for the elicitor activity. The results suggest that the structural factors required for expression of the elicitor activity differ slightly among plant species. The efficient and sensitive assay developed in this study should be useful not only for studying structure-activity relationships, but also for the screening of novel compounds that can induce defense responses.