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Induction of plant virus defense response by brassinosteroids and brassinosteroid signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

Main conclusion

Our study demonstrated that CMV resistance was upregulated by brassinosteroids (BRs) treatment, and BR signaling was needed for this BRs-induced CMV tolerance.

Plant steroid hormones, brassinosteroids (BRs), play essential roles in variety of plant developmental processes and adaptation to various biotic and abiotic stresses. BR signal through plasma membrane-localized receptor and other components to modulate several transcription factors that modulate thousands of target genes including certain stress-responsive genes. To study the effects of BRs on plant virus defense and how BRs induce plant virus stress tolerance, we manipulated the BRs levels in Arabidopsis thaliana and found that BRs levels were positively correlated with the tolerance to Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). We also showed that BRs treatment alleviated photosystem damage, enhanced antioxidant enzymes activity and induced defense-associated genes expression under CMV stress in Arabidopsis. To see whether BR signaling is essential for the plant virus defense response, we made use of BR signaling mutants (a weak allele of the BRs receptor mutant bri1-5 and constitutive BRs response mutant bes1-D). Compared with wild-type Arabidopsis plants, bri1-5 displayed reversed tolerance to CMV, but the resistance was enhanced in bes1-D. Together our results suggest that BRs can induce plant virus defense response through BR signaling.

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Abbreviations

BR:

Brassinosteroid

BL:

Brassinolide

BRZ:

Brassinazole

BRI1:

BRASSINOSTEROID-INSENSITIVE1

BES1:

BRI1 EMS SUPRESSOR 1

CMV:

Cucumber mosaic virus

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

Dpi:

Days postinoculation

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr Yanhai Yin (Iowa State University, Ames, USA) for providing WS-2, bri1-5 and bes1-D seedlings. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91417305, 31470342 and 31400211), the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2015CB150100) and the Doctoral Foundation of the Ministry of Education (20120181130008, 20110181110059).

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  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Bio-Resource and Eco-Environment, College of Life Science, State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610064, China

    Da-Wei Zhang, Xing-Guang Deng, Fa-Qiong Fu & Hong-Hui Lin

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  1. Da-Wei Zhang
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  2. Xing-Guang Deng
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  3. Fa-Qiong Fu
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Correspondence to Hong-Hui Lin.

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D.-W. Zhang and X.-G. Deng contributed equally to this work.

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Zhang, DW., Deng, XG., Fu, FQ. et al. Induction of plant virus defense response by brassinosteroids and brassinosteroid signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana. Planta 241, 875–885 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-014-2218-8

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