A novel antimicrobial protein for plant protection consisting of a Xanthomonas oryzae harpin and active domains of cecropin A and melittin

Join the green team: Inducers of plant immunity in the plant disease sustainable control toolbox

BACKGROUND

Crops are constantly attacked by various pathogens. These pathogenic microorganisms, such as fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, and nematodes, threaten global food security by causing detrimental crop diseases that generate tremendous quality and yield losses worldwide. Chemical pesticides have undoubtedly reduced crop damage; however, in addition to increasing the cost of agricultural production, the extensive use of chemical pesticides comes with environmental and social costs. Therefore, it is necessary to vigorously develop sustainable disease prevention and control strategies to promote the transition from traditional chemical control to modern green technologies. Plants possess sophisticated and efficient defense mechanisms against a wide range of pathogens naturally. Immune induction technology based on plant immunity inducers can prime plant defense mechanisms and greatly decrease the occurrence and severity of plant diseases. Reducing the use of agrochemicals is an effective way to minimize environmental pollution and promote agricultural safety.

AIM OF REVIEW

The purpose of this workis to offer valuable insights into the current understanding and future research perspectives of plant immunity inducers and their uses in plant disease control, ecological and environmental protection, and sustainable development of agriculture.

KEY SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS OF REVIEW

In this work, we have introduced the concepts of sustainable and environment-friendly concepts of green disease prevention and control technologies based on plant immunity inducers. This article comprehensively summarizes these recent advances, emphasizes the importance of sustainable disease prevention and control technologies for food security, and highlights the diverse functions of plant immunity inducers-mediated disease resistance. The challenges encountered in the potential applications of plant immunity inducers and future research orientation are also discussed.

Evaluation of Three Antimicrobial Peptides Mixtures to Control the Phytopathogen Responsible for Fire Blight Disease

Fire blight is a severe bacterial plant disease that affects important chain-of-value fruit trees such as pear and apple trees. This disease is caused by Erwinia amylovora, a quarantine phytopathogenic bacterium, which, although highly distributed worldwide, still lacks efficient control measures. The green revolution paradigm demands sustainable agriculture practices, for which antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have recently caught much attention. The goal of this work was to disclose the bioactivity of three peptides mixtures (BP100:RW-BP100, BP100:CA-M, and RW-BP100:CA-M), against three strains of E. amylovora representing distinct genotypes and virulence (LMG 2024, Ea 630 and Ea 680). The three AMPs' mixtures were assayed at eight different equimolar concentrations ranging from 0.25 to 6 μM (1:1). Results showed MIC and MBC values between 2.5 and 4 μM for every AMP mixture and strain. Regarding cell viability, flow cytometry and alamarBlue reduction, showed high reduction (>25%) of viable cells after 30 min of AMP exposure, depending on the peptide mixture and strain assayed. Hypersensitive response in tobacco plants showed that the most efficient AMPs mixtures and concentrations caused low to no reaction of the plant. Altogether, the AMPs mixtures studied are better treatment solutions to control fire blight disease than the same AMPs applied individually.

A Bifunctional Peptide Conjugate That Controls Infections of Erwinia amylovora in Pear Plants

In this paper, peptide conjugates were designed and synthesized by incorporating the antimicrobial undecapeptide BP16 at the C- or N-terminus of the plant defense elicitor peptide flg15, leading to BP358 and BP359, respectively. The evaluation of their in vitro activity against six plant pathogenic bacteria revealed that BP358 displayed MIC values between 1.6 and 12.5 μM, being more active than flg15, BP16, BP359, and an equimolar mixture of BP16 and flg15. Moreover, BP358 was neither hemolytic nor toxic to tobacco leaves. BP358 triggered the overexpression of 6 out of the 11 plant defense-related genes tested. Interestingly, BP358 inhibited Erwinia amylovora infections in pear plants, showing slightly higher efficacy than the mixture of BP16 and flg15, and both treatments were as effective as the antibiotic kasugamycin. Thus, the bifunctional peptide conjugate BP358 is a promising agent to control fire blight and possibly other plant bacterial diseases.

Expression of Melittin in Fusion with GST in Escherichia coli and Its Purification as a Pure Peptide with Good Bacteriostatic Efficacy

The expression and purification of melittin (MET) in microbials are difficult because of its antibacterial activities. In this work, MET was fused with a glutathione-S-transferase (GST) tag and expressed in Escherichia coli to overcome its lethality to host cells. The fusion protein GST-MET was highly expressed and then purified by glutathione sepharose high-performance affinity chromatography, digested with prescission protease, and further purified by Superdex Peptide 10/300 GL chromatography. Finally, 3.5 mg/L recombinant melittin (rMET) with a purity of >90% was obtained; its antibacterial activities against Gram-positive Bacillus pumilus and Staphylococcus pasteuri were similar to those of commercial MET. A circular dichroism spectroscopic assay showed that the rMET peptide secondary structure was similar to those of the commercial form. To our knowledge, this is the report of the preparation of active pure rMET with no tags. The successful expression and purification of rMET will enable large-scale, industrial biosynthesis of MET.

Characterization of a fungal competition factor: Production of a conidial cell-wall associated antifungal peptide

Competition is one of the fundamental driving forces of natural selection. Beauveria bassiana is a soil and plant phylloplane/root fungus capable of parasitizing insect hosts. Soil and plant environments are often enriched with other fungi against which B. bassiana competes for survival. Here, we report an antifungal peptide (BbAFP1), specifically expressed and localized to the conidial cell wall and is released into the surrounding microenvironment inhibiting growth of competing fungi. B. bassiana strains expressing BbAFP1, including overexpression strains, inhibited growth of Alternaria brassicae in co-cultured experiments, whereas targeted gene deletion of BbAFP1 significantly decreased (25%) this inhibitory effect. Recombinant BbAFP1 showed chitin and glucan binding abilities, and growth inhibition of a wide range of phytopathogenic fungi by disrupting membrane integrity and eliciting reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. A phenylalanine residue (F⁵⁰) contributes to chitin binding and antifungal activity, but was not required for the latter. Expression of BbAFP1 in tomato resulted in transgenic plants with enhanced resistance to plant fungal pathogens. These results highlight the importance of fungal competition in shaping primitive competition strategies, with antimicrobial compounds that can be embedded in the spore cell wall to be released into the environment during the critical initial phases of germination for successful growth in its environmental niche. Furthermore, these peptides can be exploited to increase plant resistance to fungal pathogens.

Microbial competition exerts powerful selective pressures for the development of defensive and offensive methods of suppressing potential competitors. One of the most vulnerable stages for any fungi is the initial germination of resting spores in potentially hostile environments. Currently, we know little about how fungi defend other microbial competitors during the beginning stage of conidial germination. Here, we report on an antifungal peptide from B. bassiana (BbAFP1) that is specifically expressed in mature aerial conidia, with the protein localized exclusively to the conidial cell wall. The “pre-loaded” BbAFP1 is released into the surrounding microenvironment where it can act to inhibit the growth of competing fungi during the initial stages of fungal germination, i.e. largely before actual germ tubes are apparent, thus conferring an advantage to B. bassiana in out-competing susceptible competitors in the microenvironment surrounding the spore. The effects of BbAFP1 on membrane integrity were characterized and a key amino acid (F⁵⁰) was shown to function in chitin binding and antifungal activity. Transgenic tomato overexpressing BbAFP1 were shown to exhibit enhanced resistance to plant fungal pathogens. Our study provides new insights into the microbial competition and genes involved in this process that can be exploited to increase plant disease resistance.

Targeting microbial pathogens by expression of new recombinant dermaseptin peptides in tobacco

Dermaseptin B1 (DrsB1), an antimicrobial cationic 31 amino acid peptide, is produced by Phyllomedusa bicolor. In an attempt to enhance the antimicrobial efficacy of DrsB1, the DrsB1 encoding 93 bp sequence was either fused to the N or C terminus of sequence encoding chitin-binding domain (CBD) of Avr4 gene from Cladosporium fulvum. Tobacco leaf disk explants were inoculated with Agrobacterium rhizogenes harboring pGSA/CBD-DrsB1 and pGSA/DrsB1-CBD expression vectors to produce hairy roots (HRs). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed to screen putative transgenic tobacco lines. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR and western blotting analysis indicated that the expression of recombinant genes were significantly higher, and recombinant proteins were produced in transgenic HRs. The recombinant proteins were extracted from the tobacco HRs and used against Pectobacterium carotovorum, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Ralstonia solanacearum, and Xanthomonas campestris pathogenic bacteria and Alternaria alternata and Pythium sp. fungi. Two recombinant proteins had a statistically significant (p < 0.01) inhibitory effect on the growth and development of plant pathogens. The CBD-DrsB1 recombinant protein demonstrated a higher antibacterial effect, whereas the DrsB1-CBD recombinant protein demonstrated greater antifungal activity. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that the structure of the fungal mycelia appeared segmented, adhered to each other, and crushed following the antimicrobial activity of the recombinant proteins. Due to the high antimicrobial activity of the recombinant proteins against plant pathogens, this strategy can be used to generate stable transgenic crop plants resistant to devastating plant pathogens.

Production of a Recombinant Dermaseptin Peptide in Nicotiana tabacum Hairy Roots with Enhanced Antimicrobial Activity

Expression of strong antimicrobial peptides in plants is of great interest to combat a wide range of plant pathogens. To bring the Dermaseptin B1 (DrsB1) peptide to the intimate contact of the plant pathogens cell wall surface, the DrsB1 encoding sequence was fused to the C-terminal part of the two copies of the chitin-binding domain (CBD) of the Avr4 effector protein and used for Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation. The expression of the recombinant protein in the tobacco hairy roots (HRs) was confirmed by molecular analysis. Antimicrobial activity analysis of the recombinant protein purified from the transgenic HRs showed that the (CBD)2-DrsB1 recombinant protein had a significant (p < 0.01) antimicrobial effect on the growth of different fungal and bacterial pathogens. The results of this study indicated that the recombinant protein had a higher antifungal activity against chitin-producing Alternaria alternata than Pythium spp. Scanning electron microscopy images demonstrated that the recombinant protein led to fungal hypha deformation, fragmentation, and agglutination of growing hypha, possibly by dissociating fungal cell wall components. In vitro evidences suggest that the expression of the (CBD)2-DrsB1 recombinant protein in plants by generating transgenic lines is a promising approach to produce disease-resistant plants, resistance to chitin-producing pathogenic fungi.

Three Novel Escherichia coli Vectors for Convenient and Efficient Molecular Biological Manipulations

We have constructed novel plasmids pANY2, pANY3, and pANY6 for flexible cloning with low false positives, efficient expression, and convenient purification of proteins. The pANY2 plasmid can be used for efficient isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactoside (IPTG) induced protein expression, while the pANY3 plasmid can be used for temperature-induced expression. The pANY6 plasmid contains a self-cleaving elastin-like protein (ELP) tag for purification of recombinant protein by simple ELP-mediated precipitation steps and removal of the ELP tag by self-cleavage. A urea-based denaturation and refolding processes for renaturation of insoluble inclusion bodies can be conveniently integrated into the ELP-mediated precipitation protocol, removing time-consuming dialysis steps. These novel vectors, together with the described strategies of gene cloning, protein expression, and purification, may have wide applications in biosciences, agricultural, food technologies, and so forth.

Verticillium dahliae manipulates plant immunity by glycoside hydrolase 12 proteins in conjunction with carbohydrate-binding module 1

Glycoside hydrolase 12 (GH12) proteins act as virulence factors and pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) in oomycetes. However, the pathogenic mechanisms of fungal GH12 proteins have not been characterized. In this study, we demonstrated that two of the six GH12 proteins produced by the fungus Verticillium dahliae Vd991, VdEG1 and VdEG3 acted as PAMPs to trigger cell death and PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI) independent of their enzymatic activity in Nicotiana benthamiana. A 63-amino-acid peptide of VdEG3 was sufficient for cell death-inducing activity, but this was not the case for the corresponding peptide of VdEG1. Further study indicated that VdEG1 and VdEG3 trigger PTI in different ways: BAK1 is required for VdEG1- and VdEG3-triggered immunity, while SOBIR1 is specifically required for VdEG1-triggered immunity in N. benthamiana. Unlike oomycetes, which employ RXLR effectors to suppress host immunity, a carbohydrate-binding module family 1 (CBM1) protein domain suppressed GH12 protein-induced cell death. Furthermore, during infection of N. benthamiana and cotton, VdEG1 and VdEG3 acted as PAMPs and virulence factors, respectively indicative of host-dependent molecular functions. These results suggest that VdEG1 and VdEG3 associate differently with BAK1 and SOBIR1 receptor-like kinases to trigger immunity in N. benthamiana, and together with CBM1-containing proteins manipulate plant immunity.

Chitosan oligosaccharide induces resistance to Tobacco mosaic virus in Arabidopsis via the salicylic acid-mediated signalling pathway

Chitosan is one of the most abundant carbohydrate biopolymers in the world, and chitosan oligosaccharide (COS), which is prepared from chitosan, is a plant immunity regulator. The present study aimed to validate the effect of COS on inducing resistance to tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) in Arabidopsis and to investigate the potential defence-related signalling pathways involved. Optimal conditions for the induction of TMV resistance in Arabidopsis were COS pretreatment at 50 mg/L for 1 day prior to inoculation with TMV. Multilevel indices, including phenotype data, and TMV coat protein expression, revealed that COS induced TMV resistance in wild-type and jasmonic acid pathway- deficient (jar1) Arabidopsis plants, but not in salicylic acid pathway deficient (NahG) Arabidopsis plants. Quantitative-PCR and analysis of phytohormone levels confirmed that COS pretreatment enhanced the expression of the defence-related gene PR1, which is a marker of salicylic acid signalling pathway, and increased the amount of salicylic acid in WT and jar1, but not in NahG plants. Taken together, these results confirm that COS induces TMV resistance in Arabidopsis via activation of the salicylic acid signalling pathway.

Antimicrobial peptide melittin against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, the bacterial leaf blight pathogen in rice

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is a destructive bacterial disease of rice, and the development of an environmentally safe bactericide is urgently needed. Antimicrobial peptides, as antibacterial sources, may play important roles in bactericide development. In the present study, we found that the antimicrobial peptide melittin had the desired antibacterial activity against X. oryzae pv. oryzae. The antibacterial mechanism was investigated by examining its effects on cell membranes, energy metabolism, and nucleic acid, and protein synthesis. The antibacterial effects arose from its ability to interact with the bacterial cell wall and disrupt the cytoplasmic membrane by making holes and channels, resulting in the leakage of the cytoplasmic content. Additionally, melittin is able to permeabilize bacterial membranes and reach the cytoplasm, indicating that there are multiple mechanisms of antimicrobial action. DNA/RNA binding assay suggests that melittin may inhibit macromolecular biosynthesis by binding intracellular targets, such as DNA or RNA, and that those two modes eventually lead to bacterial cell death. Melittin can inhibit X. oryzae pv. oryzae from spreading, alleviating the disease symptoms, which indicated that melittin may have potential applications in plant protection.

Constitutive expression of a novel antimicrobial protein, Hcm1, confers resistance to both Verticillium and Fusarium wilts in cotton

Fusarium and Verticillium wilts, two of the most important diseases in cotton, pose serious threats to cotton production. Here we introduced a novel antimicrobial protein Hcm1, which comprised harpin protein from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc), and the chimeric protein, cecropin A-melittin, into cotton. The transgenic cotton lines with stable Hcm1 expression showed a higher resistance to Verticillium and Fusarium wilts both in greenhouse and field trials compared to controls. Hcm1 enabled the transgenic cotton to produced a microscopic hypersensitive response (micro-HR), reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst, and caused the activation of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes in response to biotic stress, indicating that the transgenic cotton was in a primed state and ready to protect the host from pathogenic infection. Simultaneously, Hcm1 protein inhibited the growth of Verticillium dahliae (V. dahliae) and Fusarium oxysporum (F. oxysporum) in vitro. The spread of fungal biomass was also inhibited in vivo since the V. dahliae biomass was decreased dramatically in transgenic cotton plants after inoculation with V. dahliae. Together, these results demonstrate that Hcm1 could activate innate immunity and inhibit the growth of V. dahliae and F. oxysporum to protect cotton against Verticillium and Fusarium wilts.

Mutational analysis of the Verticillium dahliae protein elicitor PevD1 identifies distinctive regions responsible for hypersensitive response and systemic acquired resistance in tobacco

In our previous study, PevD1 was characterized as a novel protein elicitor produced by Verticillium dahliae inducing hypersensitive response (HR) and systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in tobacco plants; however, the detailed mechanisms of PevD1's elicitor activity remain unclear. In this study, five mutant fragments of PevD1 were generated by polymerase chain reaction-based mutagenesis and the truncated proteins expressed in Escherichia coli were used to test their elicitor activities. Biological activity analysis showed that the N-terminal and C-terminal of PevD1 had distinct influence on HR and SAR elicitation. Fragment PevD1ΔN98, which spans the C-terminal 57 amino acids of PevD1, was critical for the induction of HR in tobacco plants. In contrast, fragment PevD1ΔC57, the N-terminal of 98 amino acids of PevD1, retained the ability to induce SAR against tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) but not induction of HR, suggesting that the induction of HR is not essential for SAR mediated by PevD1. Our results indicated that fragment PevD1ΔC57 could be a candidate peptide for plant protection against pathogens without causing negative effects.

A highly-conserved single-stranded DNA-binding protein in Xanthomonas functions as a harpin-like protein to trigger plant immunity

Harpins are produced by gram-negative phytopathogenic bacteria and typically elicit hypersensitive response (HR) in non-host plants. The characterization of harpins in Xanthomonas species is largely unexplored. Here we demonstrate that Xanthomonas produce a highly conserved single-stranded DNA-binding protein (SSB(X)) that elicits HR in tobacco as by harpin Hpa1. SSB(X), like Hpa1, is an acidic, glycine-rich, heat-stable protein that lacks cysteine residues. SSB(X)-triggered HR in tobacco, as by Hpa1, is characterized by the oxidative burst, the expression of HR markers (HIN1, HSR203J), pathogenesis-related genes, and callose deposition. Both SSB(X)- and Hpa1-induced HRs can be inhibited by general metabolism inhibitors actinomycin D, cycloheximide, and lanthanum chloride. Furthermore, those HRs activate the expression of BAK1 and BIK1 genes that are essential for induction of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and salicylic acid pathways. Once applied to plants, SSB(X) induces resistance to the fungal pathogen Alternaria alternata and enhances plant growth. When ssb(X)was deleted in X. oryzae pv. oryzicola, the causal agent of bacterial leaf streak in rice, the resulting ssb(Xoc)mutant was reduced in virulence and bacterial growth in planta, but retained its ability to trigger HR in tobacco. Interestingly, ssb(Xoc)contains an imperfect PIP-box (plant-inducible promoter) and the expression of ssb(Xoc)is regulated by HrpX, which belongs to the AraC family of transcriptional activators. Immunoblotting evidence showed that SSB(x) secretion requires a functional type-III secretion system as Hpa1 does. This is the first report demonstrating that Xanthomonas produce a highly-conserved SSB(X) that functions as a harpin-like protein for plant immunity.

Nonhost resistance against bacterial pathogens: retrospectives and prospects

Nonhost resistance is a broad-spectrum plant defense that provides immunity to all members of a plant species against all isolates of a microorganism that is pathogenic to other plant species. Upon landing on the surface of a nonhost plant species, a potential bacterial pathogen initially encounters preformed and, later, induced plant defenses. One of the initial defense responses from the plant is pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP)-triggered immunity (PTI). Nonhost plants also have mechanisms to detect nonhost-pathogen effectors and can trigger a defense response referred to as effector-triggered immunity (ETI). This nonhost resistance response often results in a hypersensitive response (HR) at the infection site. This review provides an overview of these plant defense strategies. We enumerate plant genes that impart nonhost resistance and the bacterial counter-defense strategies. In addition, prospects for application of nonhost resistance to achieve broad-spectrum and durable resistance in crop plants are also discussed.