Tomato cysteine proteases and pathogen-derived inhibitors: the molecular arms-race towards defense and recognition

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Renier A.L. van der Hoorn
• Subject Area: Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems
• Term: from 2009 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 146331277

• Final Report Year: 2014

Final Report Abstract

Tomato secretes different proteases into the leaf apoplast that are targeted by different inhibitors produced by tomato pathogens. We demonstrated that the absence of these proteases enhances susceptibility towards various pathogens. We also showed that the natural variation that occurs in these proteases directly interferes with the interaction with different inhibitors, suggesting that natural variation is a result of parallel protease-inhibitor arms-races at the plant-pathogen interface. Our data indicate that secreted proteases play key roles in plant immunity and that the generation of inhibitorinsensitive proteases might protect tomato and potato against a broad range of pathogens.

Publications

• (2010) An effector-targeted protease contributes to defense against Phytophthora infestans and is under diversifying selection in natural hosts. Plant Physiol. 154, 1794-1804
  Kaschani, F., Shabab, M., Bozkurt, T., Shindo, T., Schornack, S., Gu, C., Ilyas, M., Win, J., Kamoun, S., and Van der Hoorn, R. A. L.
  
• (2011) Phytophthora infestans effector AVRblb2 prevents secretion of a plant immune protease at the haustorial interface. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA. 108, 20832-20837
  Bozkurt, T., Schornack, S., Win, J., Shindo, T., Ilyas, M., Oliva, R., Cano, L. M., Jones, A. M. E., Huitema, E., Van der Hoorn, R. A. L., and Kamoun, S.
  
• (2012) Balancing selection at the tomato RCR3 guardee gene family maintains variation in strength of pathogen defense. PLoS Genetics 8, e1002813
  Hörger, A. C., Ilyas, M., Stephan, W., Tellier, A., Van der Hoorn, R. A. L. and Rose, L. E.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002813)
• (2012) Dual disease resistance mediated by immune receptor Cf-2 in tomato require a common virulence target of a fungus and a nematode. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 109, 10119-10124
  Lozano-Torres, J. L., Wilbers, R. H. P., Gawronski, P., Boshoven, J. C., Finkers-Tomczak, A., Cordewener, J. H. G., America, A. H. P., Overmars, H. A., Van 't Klooster, J. W., Baranowski, L., Sobczak, M., Ilyas, M., Van der Hoorn, R. A. L., Schots, A., De Wit, P. J. G. M., Bakker, J., Goverse, A., and Smant, G.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1202867109)
• (2013) The structural basis of specific proteaseinhibitor interactions at the plant-pathogen interface. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 23, 843-850
  Hörger, A. C., and Van der Hoorn, R. A. L.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbi.2013.07.013)
• (2014) Effector specialization in a lineage of the Irish potato famine pathogen. Science 343, 552-555
  Dong, S., Stam, R., Cano, L. M., Song, J., Sklenar, J., Yoshida, K., Bozkurt, T. O., Oliva, R., Liu, Z., Tian, M., Win, J., Banfield, M. J., Jones, A. M., Van der Hoorn, R. A. L., and Kamoun, S.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1246300)