Secretome analysis of Magnaporthe oryzae using in vitro systems.

Magnaporthe oryzae is a devastating blast fungal pathogen of rice (Oryza sativa L.) that causes dramatic decreases in seed yield and quality. During the early stages of infection by this pathogen, the fungal spore senses the rice leaf surface, germinates, and penetrates the cell via an infectious structure known as an appressorium. During this process, M. oryzae secretes several proteins; however, these proteins are largely unknown mainly due to the lack of a suitable method for isolating secreted proteins during germination and appressoria formation. We examined the secretome of M. oryzae by mimicking the early stages of infection in vitro using a glass plate (GP), PVDF membrane, and liquid culture medium (LCM). Microscopic observation of M. oryzae growth revealed appressorium formation on the GP and PVDF membrane resembling natural M. oryzae-rice interactions; however, appresorium formation was not observed in the LCM. Secreted proteins were collected from the GP (3, 8, and 24 h), PVDF membrane (24 h), and LCM (48 h) and identified by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) followed by tandem mass spectrometry. The GP, PVDF membrane, and LCM-derived 2D gels showed distinct protein patterns, indicating that they are complementary approaches. Collectively, 53 nonredundant proteins including previously known and novel secreted proteins were identified. Six biological functions were assigned to the proteins, with the predominant functional classes being cell wall modification, reactive oxygen species detoxification, lipid modification, metabolism, and protein modification. The in vitro system using GPs and PVDF membranes applied in this study to survey the M. oryzae secretome, can be used to further our understanding of the early interactions between M. oryzae and rice leaves.

Magnaporthe oryzae Effector AVR-Pii Helps to Establish Compatibility by Inhibition of the Rice NADP-Malic Enzyme Resulting in Disruption of Oxidative Burst and Host Innate Immunity.

Plant disease resistance occurs as a hypersensitive response (HR) at the site of attempted pathogen invasion. This specific event is initiated in response to recognition of pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) and subsequent PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI). Both PTI and ETI mechanisms are tightly connected with reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and disease resistance that involves distinct biphasic ROS production as one of its pivotal plant immune responses. This unique oxidative burst is strongly dependent on the resistant cultivars because a monophasic ROS burst is a hallmark of the susceptible cultivars. However, the cause of the differential ROS burst remains unknown. In the study here, we revealed the plausible underlying mechanism of the differential ROS burst through functional understanding of the Magnaporthe oryzae (M. oryzae) AVR effector, AVR-Pii. We performed yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) screening using AVR-Pii as bait and isolated rice NADP-malic enzyme2 (Os-NADP-ME2) as the rice target protein. To our surprise, deletion of the rice Os-NADP-ME2 gene in a resistant rice cultivar disrupted innate immunity against the rice blast fungus. Malic enzyme activity and inhibition studies demonstrated that AVR-Pii proteins specifically inhibit in vitro NADP-ME activity. Overall, we demonstrate that rice blast fungus, M. oryzae attenuates the host ROS burst via AVR-Pii-mediated inhibition of Os-NADP-ME2, which is indispensable in ROS metabolism for the innate immunity of rice. This characterization of the regulation of the host oxidative burst will help to elucidate how the products of AVR genes function associated with virulence of the pathogen.

Rice OsACDR1 (Oryza sativa accelerated cell death and resistance 1) is a potential positive regulator of fungal disease resistance.

Rice Oryza sativa accelerated cell death and resistance 1 (OsACDR1) encodes a putative Raf-like mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAPKKK). We had previously reported upregulation of the OsACDR1 transcript by a range of environmental stimuli involved in eliciting defense-related pathways. Here we apply biochemical, gain and loss-of-function approaches to characterize OsACDR1 function in rice. The OsACDR1 protein showed autophosphorylation and possessed kinase activity. Rice plants overexpressing OsACDR1 exhibited spontaneous hypersensitive response (HR)-like lesions on leaves, upregulation of defense-related marker genes and accumulation of phenolic compounds and secondary metabolites (phytoalexins). These transgenic plants also acquired enhanced resistance to a fungal pathogen (Magnaporthe grisea) and showed inhibition of appressorial penetration on the leaf surface. In contrast, loss-offunction and RNA silenced OsACDR1 rice mutant plants showed downregulation of defense-related marker genes expressions and susceptibility to M. grisea. Furthermore, transient expression of an OsACDR1:GFP fusion protein in rice protoplast and onion epidermal cells revealed its localization to the nucleus. These results indicate that OsACDR1 plays an important role in the positive regulation of disease resistance in rice.

Systematic secretome analyses of rice leaf and seed callus suspension-cultured cells: workflow development and establishment of high-density two-dimensional gel reference maps.

Secreted proteins control a multitude of biological and physiological processes in multicellular organisms such as plants. Identification of secreted proteins in reference plants like Arabidopsis and rice under normal growth conditions and adverse environmental conditions will help better understand the secretory pathways. Here, we have performed a systematic in planta and in vitro analyses of proteins secreted by rice leaves (in planta) and seed callus suspension-cultured cells (SCCs; in vitro), respectively, using a combination of biochemical and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DGE) coupled with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry analyses. Secreted proteins prepared from either leaves or SCCs medium were essentially free from contamination of intracellular proteins as judged by biochemical and Western blot analyses. 2-DGE analyses of secreted proteins collectively identified 222 protein spots with only 6 protein spots common to both in planta and in vitro derived data sets. Data were used to establish high-resolution and high-density 2-D gel reference maps for both in planta and in vitro secreted proteins. Identified proteins belonged to 11 (in planta) and 6 (in vitro) functional classes. Proteins involved in carbon metabolism (33%) and cell wall metabolism having plant defense mechanism (18%) were highly represented in the in planta secreted proteins accounting for 51% of total identified proteins, whereas proteins of cell wall metabolism having plant defense mechanism (64%) were predominant in the in vitro secreted proteins. Interestingly, secreted proteins possessing signal peptides were significantly lower in an in planta (27%) prepared secreted protein population than in vitro (76%) as predicted by SignalP prediction tool, implying the notion that plant might possess yet unidentified secretory pathway(s) in addition to the classical endoplasmic reticulum/Golgi pathway. Taken together, this systematic study provides evidence for (i) significant difference in protein population secreted in planta and in vitro suggesting both approaches are complementary, (ii) identification of many novel and previously known secreted proteins, and (iii) the presence of large number of functionally diverse proteins secreted in planta and in vitro.