Maize FERONIA-like receptor genes are involved in the response of multiple disease resistance in maize |
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| Authors: | Haiyue Yu Hongchun Ruan Xinyao Xia Aline Sartor Chicowski Steven A Whitham Zhiqiang Li Guirong Wang Wende Liu |
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| Institution: | 1. Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, Agriculture Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China;2. Institute of Plant Protection, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou, China;3. State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China;4. Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA;5. Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, Agriculture Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China
State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China |
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| Abstract: | Receptor-like kinases (RLKs) are key modulators of diverse cellular processes such as development and sensing the extracellular environment. FERONIA, a member of the CrRLK1L subfamily, acts as a pleiotropic regulator of plant immune responses, but little is known about how maize FERONIA-like receptors (FLRs) function in responding to the major foliar diseases of maize such as northern corn leaf blight (NLB), northern corn leaf spot (NLS), anthracnose stalk rot (ASR), and southern corn leaf blight (SLB). Here, we identified three ZmFLR homologous proteins that showed cell membrane localization. Transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana proved that ZmFLRs were capable of inducing cell death. To investigate the role of ZmFLRs in maize, we used virus-induced gene silencing to knock down expression of ZmFLR1/2 and ZmFLR3 resulting in reduced reactive oxygen species production induced by flg22 and chitin. The resistance of maize to NLB, NLS, ASR, and SLB was also reduced in the ZmFLRs knockdown maize plants. These results indicate that ZmFLRs are positively involved in broad-spectrum disease resistance in maize. |
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| Keywords: | cell death FERONIA FLR maize disease reactive oxygen species (ROS) virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) |
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