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Functional analysis of a plant metacaspase in negative regulation of innate immunity Xu, Fan

Abstract

Programmed cell death (PCD) plays a central role in innate immune responses in plants. Plant metacaspases are distant relatives of animal caspases which have previously been shown to play important roles in regulating PCD. The Arabidopsis thaliana genome encodes three type I and six type II metacaspases (MCs). In this study, we showed that Arabidopsis type I metacaspase MC2 functions as a negative regulator of plant immunity. A loss-of-function mutant of MC2 exhibits dwarf morphology, constitutively activated defense responses including enhanced resistance to virulent pathogens and constitutive defence marker PATHOGENESIS RELATED (PR) gene expression. On the other hand, overexpression of MC2 leads to enhanced disease susceptibility. The autoimmune phenotype of mc2 is dependent on the adaptor receptor-like kinases (RLKs) BAK1/BKK1 and SOBIR1, suggesting that MC2 functions upstream of these RLKs to negatively regulate plant immunity.

Item Metadata

Title
Functional analysis of a plant metacaspase in negative regulation of innate immunity
Creator
Xu, Fan
Publisher
University of British Columbia
Date Issued
2017
Description
Programmed cell death (PCD) plays a central role in innate immune responses in plants. Plant metacaspases are distant relatives of animal caspases which have previously been shown to play important roles in regulating PCD. The Arabidopsis thaliana genome encodes three type I and six type II metacaspases (MCs). In this study, we showed that Arabidopsis type I metacaspase MC2 functions as a negative regulator of plant immunity. A loss-of-function mutant of MC2 exhibits dwarf morphology, constitutively activated defense responses including enhanced resistance to virulent pathogens and constitutive defence marker PATHOGENESIS RELATED (PR) gene expression. On the other hand, overexpression of MC2 leads to enhanced disease susceptibility. The autoimmune phenotype of mc2 is dependent on the adaptor receptor-like kinases (RLKs) BAK1/BKK1 and SOBIR1, suggesting that MC2 functions upstream of these RLKs to negatively regulate plant immunity.
Genre
Thesis/Dissertation
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2022-06-30
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0347369
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61596
Degree
Master of Science - MSc
Program
Botany
Affiliation
Science, Faculty of; Botany, Department of
Degree Grantor
University of British Columbia
Graduation Date
2017-09
Campus
UBCV
Scholarly Level
Graduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International