Browsing by Author "Jogawat, Abhimanyu"

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Arabidopsis SWEET12 contributes to the regulation of sugar allocation and defense responses during interaction with Serendipita indica
(Oxford University Press, 2026) Jogawat, Abhimanyu; Sanyasi, Madhan; Menon, Sidhardh H; Goyal, Divya; Nair, Athira Mohandas; Vadassery, Jyothilakshmi
Carbon availability is a central determinant of beneficial plant–fungal associations, and sugar transporters are key levers of this exchange. SWEETs (SUGARS WILL EVENTUALLY BE EXPORTED TRANSPORTER) are involved in transporting various kinds of sugars in plants; however, their functional roles in fungal symbiosis are not sufficiently explored. In this study, we investigate the functional relevance of Arabidopsis SWEETs in the interaction with endophytic fungi, Serendipita indica. Transcript profiling of SWEET genes in response to S. indica and its major elicitor, cellotriose, revealed early root-specific induction of SWEET12. Using a SWEET12 loss-of-function mutant, we demonstrate that the absence of SWEET12 disrupts the major outcomes of mutualism including growth promotion, balanced colonization, sugar allocation, and the accumulation of defense phytohormones (JA and SA). Transcriptome profiling further reveals that SWEET12 buffers whole-plant responses by coordinating genes linked to carbohydrate, nitrogen, and lipid metabolism, and by tuning defense signalling and nutrient transporter networks. Our findings indicate that SWEET12 is essential for balancing fungal colonization and host defense, thereby promoting plant growth. SWEET12 does so by acting as sugar valve that meters sugar release to the apoplast, enabling the fungus to access carbon while preserving host sugar homeostasis and immune competence.
Calcium channel CNGC19 mediates basal defense signaling to regulate colonization of Piriformospora indica in Arabidopsis roots
(Oxford University Press, 2020) Jogawat, Abhimanyu; Meena, Mukesh Kumar; Kundu, Anish; Varma, Mahendra; Vadassery, Jyothilakshmi
The activation of calcium signaling is a crucial event for perceiving environmental stress. Colonization by Piriformospora indica, a growth promoting root endosymbiont activates cytosolic Ca2+ in Arabidopsis roots. In this study, we analyze the role of calcium channels responsible for Ca2+ fluxes and its functional relevance. Expression profiling revealed that CNGC19 is a early activated gene, induced by unidentified components in P. indica cell wall extract. Functional analysis revealed that loss-of-function of CNGC19 results in growth inhibition by P.indica, due to increased colonization and loss of controlled P. indica growth. P. indica cell wall extract induced cytosolic Ca2+ elevation is reduced in cngc19 mutant indicating a role in generation of Ca2+cyt elevation. MAMP-trigerred immunity (MTI) is compromised in cngc19 lines as evident from unaltered callose deposition, reduced cis-OPDA, JA and JA-Ile levels and downregulation of jasmonate and other defense related genes which contributes to shift towards pathogenic response. Loss-of-function of CNGC19 results in inability to modulate indole glucosinolate content during P. indica-colonization. CNGC19 mediated basal immunity is AtPep receptor, PEPR dependent. CNGC19 is also crucial for P. indica mediated suppression of AtPep induced immunity. Thus, Arabidopsis CNGC19 is an important Ca2+ channel, maintaining a robust innate immunity and crucial for growth promotion signalling upon P. indica colonization.
PiHOG1, a stress regulator MAP kinase from the root endophyte fungus Piriformospora indica, confers salinity stress tolerance in rice plants
(Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Jogawat, Abhimanyu; Vadassery, Jyothilakshmi; Verma, Nidhi; Oelmüller, Ralf; Dua, Meenakshi; Nevo, Eviatar; Johri, Atul Kumar
In this study, yeast HOG1 homologue from the root endophyte Piriformospora indica (PiHOG1) was isolated and functionally characterized. Functional expression of PiHOG1 in S. cerevisiae ∆hog1 mutant restored osmotolerance under high osmotic stress. Knockdown (KD) transformants of PiHOG1 generated by RNA interference in P. indica showed that genes for the HOG pathway, osmoresponse and salinity tolerance were less stimulated in KD-PiHOG1 compared to the wild-type under salinity stress. Furthermore, KD lines are impaired in the colonization of rice roots under salinity stress of 200 mM NaCl, and the biomass of the host plants, their shoot and root lengths, root number, photosynthetic pigment and proline contents were reduced as compared to rice plants colonized by WT P. indica. Therefore, PiHOG1 is critical for root colonisation, salinity tolerance and the performance of the host plant under salinity stress. Moreover, downregulation of PiHOG1 resulted not only in reduced and delayed phosphorylation of the remaining PiHOG1 protein in colonized salinity-stressed rice roots, but also in the downregulation of the upstream MAP kinase genes PiPBS2 and PiSSK2 involved in salinity tolerance signalling in the fungus. Our data demonstrate that PiHOG1 is not only involved in the salinity response of P. indica, but also helping host plant to overcome salinity stress.
Piriformospora indica recruits host-derived putrescine for growth promotion in plants
(Oxford University Press, 2022) Kundu, Anish; Mishra, Shruti; Kundu, Pritha; Jogawat, Abhimanyu; Vadassery, Jyothilakshmi
Growth promotion induced by the endosymbiont Piriformospora indica has been observed in various plants; however, except growth phytohormones, specific functional metabolites involved in P. indica-mediated growth promotion are unknown. Here, we used a GC-MS based untargeted metabolite analysis to identify tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) metabolites whose levels were altered during P. indica-mediated growth promotion. Metabolomic multivariate analysis revealed several primary metabolites with altered levels, with putrescine induced most significantly in roots during the interaction. Further, our results indicated that P. indica modulates the arginine decarboxylase (ADC)-mediated putrescine biosynthesis pathway via induction of SlADC1 in tomato. P. indica did not promote growth in Sladc1-VIGS (virus-induced gene silencing of SlADC1) lines of tomato tomato and showed less colonization. Furthermore, using LC-MS/MS we showed that putrescine promoted growth by elevation of auxin (indole-3-acetic acid) and gibberellin (GA4, GA7) levels in tomato. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) adc knock-out mutants, P. indica colonization also decreased and showed no plant growth promotion, and this response was rescued upon exogenous application of putrescine. Putrescine is also important for hyphal growth of P. indica, indicating that it is co-adapted by both host and microbe. Taken together, we conclude that putrescine is an essential metabolite and its biosynthesis in plants is crucial for P. indica-mediated plant growth promotion and fungal growth.