| Affiliation: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Biology, Hunan University, Changsha, China;2. Technology Center, China Tobacco Hunan Industrial Co., Ltd., Changsha, China These authors contributed equally to this work.;3. State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, China;4. State key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Hunan Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute, Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changsha, China;5. Key Laboratory for Tobacco Gene Resources, Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, China;6. Technology Center, China Tobacco Hunan Industrial Co., Ltd., Changsha, China |
| Abstract: | Receptor-like kinases (RLKs) constitute the largest receptor family involved in the regulation of plant immunity and growth, but small-molecule inhibitors that target RLKs to improve agronomic traits remain unexplored. The RLK member FERONIA (FER) negatively regulates plant resistance to certain soil-borne diseases that are difficult to control and cause huge losses in crop yields and economy. Here, we identified 33 highly effective FER kinase inhibitors from 1494 small molecules by monitoring FER autophosphorylation in vitro. Four representative inhibitors (reversine, cenisertib, staurosporine and lavendustin A) inhibited the kinase activity of FER and its homologues in several crops by targeting the conserved ATP pocket in the kinase structure. FER contributes to the physiological impact of representative inhibitors in plants. The treatment of roots with reversine, staurosporine and lavendustin A enhanced innate immunity in plant roots and thus alleviated soil-borne diseases in tobacco, tomato and rice without growth penalties. Consistently, RNA sequencing assays showed that lavendustin A and reversine exert profound impacts on immunity-related gene expression. Our results will set a new milestone in the development of the plant RLK kinase regulation theory and provide a novel strategy for the prevention and control of plant soil-borne diseases without growth penalties. |
