Increased Cuticle Permeability Caused by a New Allele of ACETYL-COA CARBOXYLASE1 Enhances CO2 Uptake

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is an essential substrate for photosynthesis in plants. CO₂ is absorbed mainly through the stomata in land plants because all other aerial surfaces are covered by a waxy layer called the cuticle. The cuticle is an important barrier that protects against extreme water loss; however, this anaerobic layer limits CO₂ uptake. Simply, in the process of adapting to a terrestrial environment, plants have acquired drought tolerance in exchange for reduced CO₂ uptake efficiency. To evaluate the extent to which increased cuticle permeability enhances CO₂ uptake efficiency, we investigated the CO₂ assimilation rate, carbon content, and dry weight of the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutant excessive transpiration1 (extra1), whose cuticle is remarkably permeable to water vapor. We isolated the mutant as a new allele of ACETYL-COA CARBOXYLASE1, encoding a critical enzyme for fatty acid synthesis, thereby affecting cuticle wax synthesis. Under saturated water vapor conditions, the extra1 mutant demonstrated a higher CO₂ assimilation rate, carbon content, and greater dry weight than did the wild-type plant. On the other hand, the stomatal mutant slow-type anion channel-associated1, whose stomata are continuously open, also exhibited a higher CO₂ assimilation rate than the wild-type plant; however, the increase was only half of the amount exhibited by extra1. These results indicate that the efficiency of CO₂ uptake via a permeable cuticle is greater than the efficiency via stomata and confirm that land plants suffer a greater loss of CO₂ uptake efficiency by developing a cuticle barrier.

To absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂) for photosynthesis, land plants expose their wet surfaces to a dry atmosphere and suffer evaporative water loss as a consequence (Hall et al., 1993). As too much water loss would result in dehydration, plants cover most of their aerial surfaces with a relatively impermeable layer, called the cuticle, and take in CO₂ mainly through stomatal pores, which make up only about 2% per a leaf area (Willmer and Fricker, 1996). In other words, the cuticle provides drought tolerance to plants in exchange for reduced efficiency in CO₂ uptake.The cuticle is a continuous membrane consisting of a polymer matrix (cutin), polysaccharides, and organic solvent‐soluble lipids (cuticular waxes; Holloway, 1982; Jeffree, 1996; Riederer and Schreiber, 2001). The cuticle is an important structure to protect plants against excess drought, high temperature, strong UV radiation, pathogens, and harmful insects (Kerstiens, 1996a, 1996b; Burghardt and Riederer, 2006; Riederer and Müller, 2006; Domínguez et al., 2011; Yeats and Rose, 2013). The cuticle limits the transpiration through plant surfaces other than through the stomatal pores to <10% of the total (Mohr and Schopfer, 1995). On the other hand, this impermeable layer also strongly restricts CO₂ influx. Boyer et al. (1997) and Boyer (2015a, 2015b) reported a lower conductance for CO₂ than for water vapor in cuticles of intact leaves of grape (Vitis vinifera) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus) due to the differences in molecular size and diffusion paths between the two gases. However, although many studies have explored the water permeability of cuticles in various conditions and species (Kerstiens, 1996a; Riederer and Müller, 2006; Kosma et al., 2009; Schreiber and Schönherr, 2009), much less attention has been directed to CO₂, despite its substantial role in photosynthesis.In this study, we verified the hypothesis that plants could absorb CO₂ more efficiently under non-drought stress conditions if their cuticles are more permeable. In addition, we also investigated the extent to which a permeable cuticle can enhance CO₂ uptake efficiency. To verify the hypothesis, we investigated whether the CO₂ uptake efficiency is increased in a mutant with a high cuticle permeability. For this research, we isolated an Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutant named excessive transpiration1 (extra1), which exhibited marked evaporative water loss due to an increased cuticle permeability caused by a new allele of ACETYL-COA CARBOXYLASE1 (ACC1). ACC1 encodes a critical enzyme for the synthesis of malonyl-CoA, an essential substrate for fatty acid synthesis (Baud et al., 2003). To evaluate CO₂ uptake efficiency, we investigated CO₂ assimilation rate, carbon content, and dry weight of the extra1 mutant and compared them to that of wild-type plants as well as that of another mutant, slow-type anion channel-associated1 (slac1) with continuously open stomata (Negi et al., 2008; Vahisalu et al., 2008). Our results reveal that the increased cuticle permeability strongly and constantly enhances CO₂ uptake efficiency under non-drought stress conditions.     

THE COUPLED REDOX POTENTIAL OF THE LACTATE-ENZYME-PYRUVATE SYSTEM

1. The term "coupled redox potential" is defined. 2. The system lactic ion See PDF for Equation pyruvic ion + 2H⁺ + 2e is shown to be reversible (when the enzyme is lactic acid dehydrogenase) and its coupled redox potential between pH 5.2 and 7.2 at 32°C. is: See PDF for Equation 3. The free energy of the reaction: lactic ion (1m) → pyruvic ion (1m) = -ΔF = –14,572. 4. The standard free energy of formation (ΔF ₂₉₈) of pyruvic acid (l) is estimated at –108,127. This is merely an approximation as some necessary data are lacking. 5. The importance of coupled redox potentials as a factor in the regulation of the equilibrium of metabolites is indicated.     

Phosphatidylglycerol Composition Is Central to Chilling Damage in the Arabidopsis fab1 Mutant

The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) fatty acid biosynthesis1 (fab1) mutant has increased levels of the saturated fatty acid 16:0, resulting from decreased activity of 3-ketoacyl-ACP synthase II. In fab1 leaves, phosphatidylglycerol, the major chloroplast phospholipid, contains >40% high-melting-point molecular species (HMP-PG; molecules that contain only 16:0, 16:1-trans, and 18:0 fatty acids)—a trait associated with chilling-sensitive plants—compared with <10% in wild-type Arabidopsis. Although they do not exhibit short-term chilling sensitivity when exposed to low temperatures (2°C to 6°C) for long periods, fab1 plants do suffer collapse of photosynthesis, degradation of chloroplasts, and eventually death. To test the relevance of HMP-PG to the fab1 phenotype, we used transgenic 16:0 desaturases targeted to the endoplasmic reticulum and the chloroplast to lower 16:0 in leaf lipids of fab1 plants. We produced two lines that had very similar lipid compositions except that one, ER-FAT5, contained high HMP-PG, similar to the fab1 parent, while the second, TP-DES9*, contained <10% HMP-PG, similar to the wild type. TP-DES9* plants, but not ER-FAT5 plants, showed strong recovery and growth following 75 d at 2°C, demonstrating the role of HMP-PG in low-temperature damage and death in fab1, and in chilling-sensitive plants more broadly.

In higher plants, the chloroplast membranes that host the light harvesting and electron transport processes of photosynthesis have a characteristically high number of double bonds in the glycerolipid acyl chains. Only ∼10% of the fatty acids that compose the hydrophobic core of the thylakoid bilayer lack double bonds altogether, whereas >80% are polyunsaturated, having two or three double bonds (Ohlrogge et al., 2015). The photosynthetic light reactions produce reactive oxygen species as by-products, and these can degrade polyunsaturated fatty acids, so it is assumed that highly unsaturated membranes are required to support photosynthesis (McConn and Browse, 1998).The glycerolipids in chloroplast membranes are synthesized by two separate pathways. (Browse et al., 1986; Ohlrogge and Browse, 1995). Synthesis de novo of fatty acids takes place in the stroma of chloroplasts, producing 16:0 esterified to acyl carrier protein (ACP). A large proportion of this 16:0-ACP is elongated by 3-keto-acyl-ACP synthase II (KASII) to 18:0-ACP, which is in turn desaturated by stearoyl ACP desaturase to produce 18:1-ACP (Lindqvist et al., 1996; Carlsson et al., 2002). The fatty acids from 16:0-ACP and 18:1-ACP may be used within the chloroplast in the prokaryotic pathway (Kunst et al., 1988; Kim and Huang, 2004) to produce phosphatidic acid (PA). Some of this PA intermediate is used for synthesis of phosphatidylglycerol (PG; Ohlrogge and Browse, 1995; Wada and Murata, 2007), which is the only chloroplast glycerolipid that is produced solely by the prokaryotic pathway. In some plants, including Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), PA is also converted to diacylglycerol (DAG), which is the precursor for the synthesis of the other chloroplast glycerolipids, monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGD), digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGD), and sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol (SQD; Browse et al., 1986; Ohlrogge and Browse, 1995; Ohlrogge et al., 2015).The second route for chloroplast glycerolipid synthesis, the eukaryotic pathway, begins with export of 16:0 and 18:1 from the chloroplast as CoA thioesters. (Li et al., 2015). In the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), these fatty acids are rapidly incorporated into phosphatidylcholine (PC) by acyl exchange (Bates et al., 2007), and are also used (via PA and DAG intermediates) for the synthesis of all the phospholipids of the extrachloroplast membranes of the cell (Ohlrogge et al., 2015). In addition however, the DAG moiety of PC can be returned to the chloroplast and contribute to the production of MGD, DGD, and SQD required for thylakoid synthesis (Benning, 2009; Roston et al., 2012). The ER-to-chloroplast flux of lipid is reversible to some extent (Browse et al., 1989, 1993).With the exception of the first Δ9 double bond in 18:1-ACP, all the double bonds in the acyl chains are introduced after the initial synthesis of glycerolipid molecules. In Arabidopsis, this involves the action of seven fatty acid desaturases that are integral membrane proteins in the chloroplast and ER (Ohlrogge and Browse, 1995; Wallis and Browse, 2010). Characterization of Arabidopsis fatty acid desaturation (fad) mutants deficient in one or more of these desaturases has shown that the high level of thylakoid unsaturation is essential to photosynthetic function (Murakami et al., 2000; Routaboul et al., 2000). For example, fad2 fad6 double-mutant plants are unable to synthesize polyunsaturated fatty acids and cannot grow autotrophically; however, when grown on Suc as a carbon source, the double mutants are robust plants showing strong leaf and root development (McConn and Browse, 1998). These results indicate that the vast majority of receptor-mediated and transport-related membrane functions required to sustain the organism and induce proper development are adequately supported in the absence of polyunsaturated lipids; photosynthesis is the one process that requires high levels of polyunsaturation. Mutants with smaller changes in unsaturation are often similar to the wild type under typical growth-chamber conditions and reveal their phenotypes only under more extreme conditions (Wallis and Browse, 2002, 2010). Several mutants grow more slowly and become chlorotic at temperatures in the range 2°C to 10°C (Hugly and Somerville, 1992; Routaboul et al., 2000), indicating a role for fatty acid composition in maintaining photosynthesis at these low temperatures.Like other species native to temperate regions, Arabidopsis is chilling resistant and able to grow at temperatures close to 0°C. By contrast, many tropical and subtropical plant species are chilling sensitive and suffer sharp reductions of photosynthesis and extensive tissue damage after even short exposure to low temperatures. Many of the world’s most important crops, including rice (Oryza sativa), maize (Zea mays), and soybean (Glycine max) are chilling sensitive, so a better understanding of the biochemical and genetic factors contributing to this sensitivity has the potential to enhance sustainable food production (Nishida and Murata, 1996; Iba, 2002; Thakur et al., 2010). One hypothesis proposes that chilling sensitivity is a result of the fatty acid composition of chloroplast PG. It is based on the observation that many chilling-sensitive plants contain >30% of PG molecules with only saturated or trans unsaturated fatty acids—16:0, 18:0, and 16:1-Δ3trans (16:1t)—at both the sn-1 and sn-2 positions of the glycerol backbone, referred to as high-melting-point molecular species (HMP-PG; Murata, 1983; Barkan et al., 2006). This name alludes to the fact that HMP-PG species can induce a phase change from liquid crystalline (typical of biological membranes) to gel phase at temperatures well above 0°C and thereby disrupt membrane and cellular function (Murata and Yamaya, 1984). Chilling-resistant plants have <10% HMP species in chloroplast PG (Murata et al., 1982; Murata, 1983; Roughan, 1985).One perspective on the role of HMP-PG in plant temperature responses has come from our investigations of the fatty acid biosynthesis1 (fab1) mutant of Arabidopsis. In this mutant, a hypomorphic mutation in the gene encoding KASII reduces elongation of 16:0-ACP to 18:0-ACP (Carlsson et al., 2002), producing plants that have increased levels of 16:0 in all membrane glycerolipids (Wu et al., 1994). In particular, fab1 plants contain HMP-PG at levels (∼40% to 50% of total PG) similar to those of many chilling-sensitive plant species (Wu and Browse, 1995). Nevertheless, the fab1 mutant does not show typical symptoms of chilling sensitivity and is unaffected, in comparison to wild-type controls, by a range of chilling treatments that kill chilling-sensitive plants; instead, fab1 plants only show a collapse of photosynthesis after >10 d of exposure to 2°C, with the plants dying after several weeks at low temperature (Wu and Browse, 1995; Wu et al., 1997).We have previously screened for genetic suppressors of the fab1 low-temperature phenotype. Most, though not all, of the suppressor mutations substantially reduce the proportion of saturated fatty acids in PG, consistent with the notion that HMP-PG causes eventual death of fab1 plants in the cold (Barkan et al., 2006; Kim et al.,2010; Gao et al., 2015). However, all the suppressors have additional changes, relative to fab1, in the fatty acid compositions of membrane lipids that prevent a clear linkage between reductions in HMP-PG and improved low-temperature survival.Here, we have taken a new approach to investigating the role of HMP-PG in damage and death of fab1 plants at chilling temperatures by using a 16:0-CoA desaturase from Caenorhabditis elegans, FAT-5 (Watts and Browse, 2000), and a glycerolipid desaturase, DES9*15, derived from a cyanobacterial enzyme by directed evolution (Bai et al., 2016). When expressed in the fab1 mutant background, both the FAT-5 enzyme targeted to the ER and the DES9*15 enzyme targeted to the chloroplast reduced leaf 16:0 to near-wild type levels. The fatty acid compositions of individual leaf lipids in plants of both transgenic lines were very similar, with the sole exception of PG. Plants expressing the FAT-5 desaturase retained high levels of HMP-PG, similar to fab1, while plants expressing the DES9*15 enzyme had HMP-PG lowered to levels close to those of the wild type. Like the fab1 mutant, fab1 plants expressing a 16:0 desaturase in the ER lost photosynthetic function over 28 d of exposure to 2°C and showed little capacity for recovery and growth after longer periods at low temperature. By contrast, plants expressing a 16:0 desaturase targeted to the chloroplast retained substantial photosynthetic function, even after 75 d at 2°C, and were subsequently able to resume growth, flower, and set seed upon return to 22°C. These results provide the most direct evidence yet that high levels of HMP-PG cause gradual loss of photosynthesis and eventual death of plants at chilling temperatures.     

Molecular Basis for Chemical Evolution of Flavones to Flavonols and Anthocyanins in Land Plants

During the course of evolution of land plants, different classes of flavonoids, including flavonols and anthocyanins, sequentially emerged, facilitating adaptation to the harsh terrestrial environment. Flavanone 3β-hydroxylase (F3H), an enzyme functioning in flavonol and anthocyanin biosynthesis and a member of the 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase (2-ODD) family, catalyzes the hydroxylation of (2S)-flavanones to dihydroflavonols, but its origin and evolution remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that functional flavone synthase Is (FNS Is) are widely distributed in the primitive land plants liverworts and evolutionarily connected to seed plant F3Hs. We identified and characterized a set of 2-ODD enzymes from several liverwort species and plants in various evolutionary clades of the plant kingdom. The bifunctional enzyme FNS I/F2H emerged in liverworts, and FNS I/F3H evolved in Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens and Selaginella moellendorffii, suggesting that they represent the functional transition forms between canonical FNS Is and F3Hs. The functional transition from FNS Is to F3Hs provides a molecular basis for the chemical evolution of flavones to flavonols and anthocyanins, which contributes to the acquisition of a broader spectrum of flavonoids in seed plants and facilitates their adaptation to the terrestrial ecosystem.

The success of land plants in the colonization of and adaptation to terrestrial ecosystems has been particularly attributed to the emergence and evolution of a unique metabolic capacity that synthesizes diverse specialized metabolites, including flavonoids, a highly polymorphic class of polyphenols (Weng and Chapple, 2010). The flavonoid metabolites have been classified into several subgroups, namely flavanones, dihydroflavonols, flavones, flavonols, flavan-3,4-diols, flavan-3-ols, and anthocyanins, based on their oxidation status and substitution patterns of the core skeleton (Winkel-Shirley, 2001; Martens et al., 2010). Along with the evolution of land plants, different classes of flavonoids emerged (Koes et al., 1994). The basal land plants liverworts produce chalcones, flavanones, and flavones; whereas lycophytes gained the ability to produce proanthocyanidins (Markham, 1984; Koes et al., 1994). Furthermore, both pteridophyta and gymnosperms, while dominated with flavone production, began to produce flavonols (Markham, 1984; Koes et al., 1994). Finally, flavonols and anthocyanins are well represented in angiosperms. Flavonols, which bear a 3-hydroxyl group in the core structure, have been exploited as effective photoprotectants against UV-B radiation (Solovchenko and Schmitz-Eiberger, 2003), as signal providers to symbionts (Hungria et al., 1991), as regulators of the transport of phytohormones (Peer and Murphy, 2007), and as determinants of conditional male fertility (Muhlemann et al., 2018). Anthocyanins, derived from dihydroflavonol, are important for sexual reproduction, acting as attractants for insect pollinators and for animal dispersers of seed (Shimada et al., 2005). It is obvious that a clear chemical evolution trace from chalcones, flavanones, and flavones to flavonols and anthocyanins, occurs across plant phyla. However, the molecular basis for such a chemical evolution remains mysterious.The biosynthesis of flavones and flavonols requires chemical conversion of a common precursor, (2S)-flavanone, and is catalyzed by flavone synthase I (FNS I) and flavanone 3β-hydroxylases (F3Hs), respectively. Both enzymes as well as flavonol synthase (FLS) and anthocyanidin synthase (ANS) belong to a larger enzyme family, the 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases (2-ODDs; Farrow and Facchini, 2014). FNS I converts (2S)-flavanone to flavone via desaturation of carbon 2 and 3 of the heterologous ring of flavanone (Gebhardt et al., 2005, 2007), while F3H catalyzes the conversion of (2S)-flavanone to (2R,3R)-dihydroflavonol by hydroxylation of the C-3β position (Supplemental Fig. S1). Subsequently, FLS converts (2R,3R)-dihydroflavonols to their corresponding flavonols, and ANS catalyzes the nonpigmented leucoanthocyanidins (leucopelargonidin, leucocyanidin, and leucodelphinidin) to the pigmented anthocyanidins (pelargonidin, cyanidin, and delphinidin, respectively; Supplemental Fig. S1). These four classes of 2-ODD enzymes phylogenetically form two distinct subgroups, one consisting of F3H and FNS I and the other consisting of FLS and ANS. FNS I and F3H both use flavanone as substrate and exhibit, in general, a relatively narrow substrate specificity (Turnbull et al., 2000; Martens et al., 2003), whereas ANS and FLS display some degree of promiscuity in their substrate preferences and catalytic activities. For example, Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) FLS1 is not only capable of converting dihydroflavonols to their corresponding flavonols but also mediates the oxidation of 2S-flavanone (naringenin) to both dihydrokaempferol enantiomers, an activity normally associated with F3H (Prescott et al., 2002). While F3Hs are ubiquitous in vascular plants, FNS Is appear to be confined to the Apiaceae family as well as a few non-Apiaceae species such as rice (Oryza sativa; Lee et al., 2008), maize (Zea mays), and Arabidopsis (Falcone Ferreyra et al., 2015). Prior to the discovery of FNS Is in those non-Apiaceae species, it was assumed that the gene encoding FNS I arose from duplication and mutation of F3H (Martens et al., 2001, 2003; Gebhardt et al., 2005, 2007). However, the FNS Is revealed in both Z. mays and Arabidopsis show very poor sequence similarity with those present in Apiaceae species, which suggests that the evolution of the FNS Is was not as clear-cut as was originally believed. It is likely that the evolution of FNS occurred several times independently. In several cereal crops, such as Z. mays, O. sativa, and wheat (Triticum aestivum), flavones are the major flavonoid substances, which protect the plants during pathogen attack and under biotic or abiotic stress conditions (Righini et al., 2019).Previously, we found that the liverwort Plagiochasma appendiculatum FNS I (which should change to PaFNS I/F2H, according to the function) converted flavanone to 2-hydroxyflavanone and flavone (Han et al., 2014). The dual FNS I and F2H activities of PaFNS I/F2H, together with the fact that its amino acid sequence shares a higher identity with F3Hs than with FNS Is, implicates an evolutionary connection between liverwort FNS Is and seed plant F3Hs. On the other hand, previous in silico analysis failed in identifying any F3H sequences in either the bryophyte Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens or the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii, even though both species produce dihydroflavonol-derived metabolites. To identify when and how F3H emerged and evolved to produce a vast variety of flavonoid metabolites, we systematically identified FNS I and F3H homologous sequences from species of different phyla, including liverworts, P. patens, S. moellendorffii, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. Subsequent biochemical characterization revealed that the functionally promiscuous FNS Is widely emerged in the liverworts, which evolved into a dual-function enzyme with both FNS I and F3H activities in both P. patens and S. moellendorffii. Further evolution led to the emergence of F3H with a minor level of FNS I activity in gymnosperm species, while those generated by angiosperm species showed a more specific F3H activity.     

Specific inactivation of an antifungal bacterial siderophore by a fungal plant pathogen

Bacteria and fungi secrete many natural products that inhibit each other’s growth and development. The dynamic changes in secreted metabolites that occur during interactions between bacteria and fungi are complicated. Pyochelin is a siderophore produced by many Pseudomonas and Burkholderia species that induces systemic resistance in plants and has been identified as an antifungal agent. Through imaging mass spectrometry and metabolomics analysis, we found that Phellinus noxius, a plant pathogen, can modify pyochelin and ent-pyochelin to an esterification product, resulting in reduced iron-chelation and loss of antifungal activity. We also observed that dehydroergosterol peroxide, the fungal metabolite, is only accumulated in the presence of pyochelin produced through bacteria–fungi interactions. For the first time, we show the fungal transformation of pyochelin in the microbial interaction. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding the dynamic changes of metabolites in microbial interactions and their influences on microbial communities.Subject terms: Microbial ecology, Metabolomics

Microorganisms use various strategies to establish themselves within an ecological niche while facing keen competition in the environment. Natural products such as antibiotics, quorum sensing molecules, and siderophores are crucial in microbial interactions [1–3]. Certain microorganisms are equipped with uptake systems that enable them to acquire siderophores, even by those that may not produce them [4]. For example, pyochelin is a siderophore produced by many Pseudomonas and Burkholderia strains. Such bacterial strains are commonly found in soils, as endophytes, and from the rhizosphere where they may inhibit plant pathogens [5, 6].Burkholderia cenocepacia 869T2 was isolated as an endophyte and showed beneficial abilities to control banana Fusarium wilt [7]. It harbors many biosynthetic gene clusters of secondary metabolites, such as pyochelin, pyrrolnitrin, and pyrroloquinoline quinone [8]. Recently, we found that this strain could temporarily inhibit the growth of P. noxius, a fungal pathogen of brown root rot disease, which is prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions and has a wide host range covering over 200 plant species [9]. However, in the competition between fungi and bacteria, P. noxius can resist this inhibition and overwhelm bacterial colonies after 1–2 weeks under dual-culture conditions (Fig. S1). These results imply that fungi might have resistance responses and undergo metabolic changes in bacteria–fungi interactions [10]. Here we unveiled metabolic changes in the competitive interaction between B. cenocepacia 869T2 and P. noxius 2252 using the matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF IMS) [11, 12].We specifically monitored the metabolites in the inhibition region of B. cenocepacia 869T2 and P. noxius 2252 dual-culture using MALDI-TOF IMS. Several induced or enzymatically modified metabolites were detected, including m/z 275, 362, 383, and 427 (Fig. 1A). In particular, pyochelin (m/z 325), surrounding the B. cenocepacia 869T2 colony, showed asymmetric distribution in dual-culture samples. Near the P. noxius 2252 mycelia, a new metabolite with m/z 383 was detected with a complementary distribution to pyochelin (Fig. 1A). In LC-MS/MS-based molecular networking analysis [13], we found that this new metabolite structure is an esterification product of pyochelin and glycolic acid, which we named pyochelin-GA (Fig. 1B). We then constructed a pchF-null mutant strain, ΔpchF, which cannot produce pyochelin, and then dual cultured it with P. noxius. Pyochelin and pyochelin-GA were not observed in the MALDI-TOF IMS and LC-MS analysis of dual-culture samples (Fig. 1A and Fig. S2). We further inoculated P. noxius 2252 with pyochelin-GA-free extract harvested from B. cenocepacia 869T2 single culture, and the complementary distribution of pyochelin and pyochelin-GA was observed by MALDI-TOF IMS again (Fig. S3). These results demonstrated that pyochelin-GA was transformed from pyochelin by P. noxius 2252, rather than produced by B. cenocepacia 869T2 under dual-culture conditions.Open in a separate windowFig. 1Metabolic changes in the bacteria–fungi interaction.A Spatial distribution of selected mass signals (m/z) in MALDI-TOF IMS analysis of Phellinus noxius 2252 (Pn2252) dual-cultured with Burkholderia cenocepacia 869T2 (869T2) and a pchF-null mutant strain (Δ pchF). B Molecular networking analysis of pyochelin and analogs from the dual-culture sample. The red node is pyochelin, and the green node is pyochelin-GA. The structures of pyochelin, pyochelin-GA, and dehydroergosterol peroxide (DHEP), together with their mass signals in MALDI-TOF IMS, are shown. C Iron-chelating abilities of pyochelin and pyochelin-GA were evaluated by Chrome Azurol S liquid assay using different concentrations (2.5, 1.25, 0.63, 0.31, and 0.16 mM, n = 3). Proportions of siderophore units are shown in Fig. S14. D Fungal transformation of pyochelin and ent-pyochelin by treating P. noxius 2252 with ethyl acetate crude extracts of B. cenocepacia 869T2, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, and P. protegens Pf-5 for 8 h. LC-MS was used to monitor the signals of pyochelin (red), ent-pyochelin (blue), and transformation product 383 (black).The chemical structure of pyochelin-GA was further confirmed via total synthesis, NMR, and LC-MS/MS analysis (Supplementary Material and Methods, and Figs. S4–7). The purified pyochelin and pyochelin-GA were also evaluated for their iron-chelating ability. Chrome Azurol S assay indicated that pyochelin had the dose-dependent iron-chelating ability, but pyochelin-GA had lower iron-binding efficiency (Fig. 1C, Fig. S8). Pyochelin chelates iron in the extracellular medium and transports it into cells via the specific outer membrane transporter FptA. The X-ray structure of FptA-pyochelin-Fe indicated that the terminal carboxylic acid of pyochelin plays an essential role in the iron uptake ability [14, 15]. Our docking analysis suggested that the glycolic ester moiety of pyochelin-GA would affect the binding pocket shape of FptA and result in different binding properties compared to FptA-pyochelin (Fig. S9).Pyochelin and ent-pyochelin are produced independently by different biosynthetic gene clusters in Pseudomonas species [16]. To determine whether P. noxius 2252 can transform both enantiomers via this esterification process, we treated P. noxius 2252 with the extracts of pyochelin producers (P. aeruginosa PAO1 and B. cenocepacia 869T2) and an ent-pyochelin producer (P. protegens Pf-5). After 8 h of treatment, both pyochelin and ent-pyochelin were converted to pyochelin-GA (or ent-pyochelin-GA) (Fig. 1D), demonstrating this is a non-stereospecific transformation.To better understand the iron-chelating ability of pyochelin, we used pyochelin and pyochelin-GA to treat P. noxius 2252 under iron-deficiency conditions, by adding the iron chelator deferoxamine, and iron-rich conditions by adding FeCl₃ (Fig. 2). Pyochelin-GA did not affect the growth of P. noxius 2252 under all conditions. However, P. noxius 2252 was more sensitive to pyochelin in iron-deficient conditions and more resistant to pyochelin in iron-rich conditions, demonstrating that iron availability directly affected the tolerance of P. noxius 2252 to pyochelin. A similar phenomenon was reported previously for Aspergillus fumigatus [17].Open in a separate windowFig. 2Pyochelin inhibition of mycelial growth of Phellinus noxius 2252 is inversely associated with iron concentration.Pyochelin-GA did not have an inhibition effect on P. noxius 2252. Potato dextrose agar (PDA) with deferoxamine (DFO; 200 and 400 µM) was used to mimic iron-deficiency conditions. Iron-rich conditions was prepared by adding FeCl₃ (200 and 400 µM) in PDA. P. noxius 2252 was treated with 0.03, 0.06, 0.12, and 0.24 µmol of pyochelin or pyochelin-GA at 30 °C for 24 h. The antifungal assay was performed in two biological replicates.Using MALDI-TOF IMS analysis of the dual-culture of B. cenocepacia 869T2 and P. noxius 2252, we observed that several metabolites (e.g., m/z 275, 362, and 427) were only observed in the boundary of fungal mycelia (Fig. 1A). Although those metabolites were not detected in the dual-culture of ΔpchF and P. noxius 2252 (Fig. 1A), they were present when we treated P. noxius 2252 with pyochelin (Fig. S10). We identified the metabolite associated with m/z 427 as dehydroergosterol peroxide (DHEP) (Fig. S11), which was initially oxidized from ergosterol and dehydroergosterol [18]. Pyochelin can enhance intercellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and ultimately disrupts membrane integrity, leading to cell death [17, 19, 20]. To clarify whether ROS induced the accumulation of DHEP, we treated P. noxius 2252 with pyochelin, pyochelin-GA, and 2,2′-bipyridyl (an iron chelator). Pyochelin and 2,2′-bipyridyl showed antifungal effects on P. noxius 2252 and induced ROS production (Fig. S12). However, the accumulation of DHEP in P. noxius 2252 was only associated with pyochelin treatment (Fig. S13). The induction of ROS in P. noxius 2252 by pyochelin and pyochelin-GA was not significantly different (Fig. S14). Therefore, we predict that pyochelin-induced accumulation of DHEP in P. noxius 2252 is independent of ROS production and iron-deficiency.Overall, we demonstrate that pyochelin transformation by fungi, in the interaction between pyochelin-producing bacteria and the plant pathogen P. noxius transforms pyochelin and ent-pyochelin into pyochelin-GA (and ent-pyochelin-GA). This product no longer functions as an iron chelator and no longer shows antifungal activity. The production of a fungal metabolite, dehydroergosterol peroxide, was induced explicitly by pyochelin through an unknown mechanism. These results highlight the importance of monitoring dynamic changes of metabolites in situ to better understand the functions and influences of metabolites on microbial community interactions.