Browsing by Author "Ramu, Vemanna S."

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Foliar application or seed priming of cholic acid-glycine conjugates can mitigate/prevent the rice bacterial leaf blight disease via activating plant defense genes
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2021) Pal, Garima; Mehta, Devashish; Singh, Saurabh; Magal, Kalai; Gupta, Siddhi; Jha, Gopaljee; Bajaj, Avinash; Ramu, Vemanna S.
Xanthomonas Oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) causes bacterial blight and Rhizoctonia solani (R. solani) causes sheath blight in rice accounting for >75% of crop losses. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop strategies for the mitigation of these pathogen infections. In this study, we report the antimicrobial efficacy of Cholic Acid-Glycine Conjugates (CAGCs) against Xoo and R. solani. We show that CAGC C6 is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial and is also able to degrade biofilms. The application of C6 did not hamper plant growth and showed minimal effect on the plant cell membranes. Exogenous application of C6 on pre-infection or post-infection of Xoo on rice susceptible genotype Taichung native (TN1) can mitigate the bacterial load and improve resistance through upregulation of plant defense genes. We further demonstrate that C6 can induce plant defense responses when seeds were primed with C6 CAGC. Therefore, this study demonstrates the potential of CAGCs as effective antimicrobials for crop protection that can be further explored for field applications.
A novel role of salt and drought induced RING 1 protein in modulating plant defense against hemibiotrophic and necrotrophic pathogens
(American Phytopathological Society, 2021) Ramu, Vemanna S.; Oh, Sunhee; Lee, Hee-Kyung; Nandety, Raja Sekhar; Oh, Youngjae; Lee, Seonghee; Nakashima, Jin; Tang, Yuhong; Senthil-Kumar, Muthappa; Mysore, Kirankumar S.
Many plant encoded E3 ligases are known to be involved in plant defense. Here we report a novel role of E3 ligase SALT- AND DROUGHT-INDUCED RING FINGER1 (SDIR1) in plant immunity. Even though SDIR1 is reasonably well-characterized, its role in biotic stress response is not known. The silencing of SDIR1 in Nicotiana benthamiana reduced the multiplication of the virulent bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci. The Arabidopsis sdir1 mutant is resistant to virulent pathogens, whereas SDIR1 overexpression lines are susceptible to both host and nonhost hemibiotrophic bacterial pathogens. However, sdir1 mutant and SDIR1 overexpression lines showed hypersusceptibility and resistance, respectively, against the necrotrophic pathogen, Erwinia carotovora. The mutant of SDIR1 target protein, SDIR-interacting protein 1 (SDIR1P1), also showed resistance to host and nonhost pathogens. In SDIR1 overexpression plants, transcripts of NAC transcription factors were less accumulated and the levels of JA and abscisic acid (ABA) were increased. In sdir1 mutants, JA signaling genes JAZ7 and JAZ8 were downregulated. These data suggest that SDIR1 is a susceptibility factor, and its activation/overexpression enhances disease caused by P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000 in Arabidopsis. Our results show a novel role of SDIR1 in modulating plant defense gene expression and plant immunity.
Plant ribosomal proteins, RPL12 and RPL19, play a role in nonhost disease resistance against bacterial pathogens
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2015) Nagaraj, Satish; Senthil-Kumar, Muthappa; Ramu, Vemanna S.; Wang, Keri; Mysore, Kirankumar S.
Characterizing the molecular mechanism involved in nonhost disease resistance is important to understand the adaptations of plant-pathogen interactions. In this study, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS)-based forward genetics screen was utilized to identify genes involved in nonhost resistance in Nicotiana benthamiana. Genes encoding ribosomal proteins, RPL12 and RPL19, were identified in the screening. These genes when silenced in N. benthamiana caused a delay in nonhost bacteria induced hypersensitive response (HR) with concurrent increase in nonhost bacterial multiplication. Arabidopsis mutants of AtRPL12 and AtRPL19 also compromised nonhost resistance. The studies on NbRPL12 and NbRPL19 double silenced plants suggested that both RPL12 and RPL19 act in the same pathway to confer nonhost resistance. Our work suggests a role for RPL12 and RPL19 in nonhost disease resistance in N. benthamiana and Arabidopsis. In addition, we show that these genes also play a minor role in basal resistance against virulent pathogens.
pssRNAit-a web server for designing effective and specific plant siRNAs with genome-wide off-target assessment
(American Society of Plant Biologists, 2020) Ahmed, Firoz; Senthil-Kumar, Muthappa; Dai, Xinbin; Ramu, Vemanna S.; Lee, Seonghee; Mysore, Kirankumar S; Zhao, Patrick Xuechun
We report an advanced web server named pssRNAit (plant specific small non-coding RNAi tool) that can be used to design a pool of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) for highly effective, specific, and non-toxic gene silencing in plants. In developing this tool, we integrated the transcript dataset of plants, several rules governing gene silencing, and a series of computational models of the biological mechanism of the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. The designed pool of siRNAs can be used to construct a long double-stranded RNA (long-dsRNA) and expressed through virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) or synthetic trans-acting siRNA (syn-tasiRNA) vectors for gene silencing. We demonstrated the performance of pssRNAit by designing and expressing the VIGS constructs to silence Phytoene desaturase (PDS) or a ribosomal protein-encoding gene, RPL10 (QM), in Nicotiana benthamiana. We analyzed the expression levels of predicted intended target and off-target genes using RT-qPCR. We further conducted an RNA-seq-based transcriptome analysis to assess genome-wide off-target gene silencing triggered by the fragments that were designed by pssRNAit, targeting different homologous regions of the PDS gene. Our analyses confirmed the high accuracy of siRNA constructs designed using pssRNAit. The pssRNAit server, freely available at https://plantgrn.noble.org/pssRNAit/, supports the design of highly effective and specific RNAi, VIGS, or syn-tasiRNA constructs for high-throughput functional genomics and trait improvement in more than 160 plant species.
Ribosomal protein QM/RPL10 positively regulates defence and protein translation mechanisms during nonhost disease resistance
(John Wiley & Sons, 2020) Ramu, Vemanna S.; Dawane, Akashata; Lee, Seonghee; Oh, Sunhee; Lee, Hee-Kyung; Sun, Liang; Senthil-Kumar, Muthappa; Mysore, Kirankumar S.
Ribosomes play an integral part in plant growth, development, and defence responses. We report here the role of ribosomal protein large (RPL) subunit QM/RPL10 in nonhost disease resistance. The RPL10-silenced Nicotiana benthamiana plants showed compromised disease resistance against nonhost pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato T1. The RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that many genes involved in defence and protein translation mechanisms were differentially affected due to silencing of NbRPL10. Arabidopsis AtRPL10 RNAi and rpl10 mutant lines showed compromised nonhost disease resistance to P. syringae pv. tomato T1 and P. syringae pv. tabaci. Overexpression of AtRPL10A in Arabidopsis resulted in reduced susceptibility against host pathogen P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000. RPL10 interacts with the RNA recognition motif protein and ribosomal proteins RPL30, RPL23, and RPS30 in the yeast two-hybrid assay. Silencing or mutants of genes encoding these RPL10- interacting proteins in N. benthamiana or Arabidopsis, respectively, also showed compromised disease resistance to nonhost pathogens. These results suggest that QM/ RPL10 positively regulates the defence and translation-associated genes during nonhost pathogen infection.
Transcriptome analysis of sunflower genotypes with contrasting oxidative stress tolerance reveals individual- and combined- biotic and abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms
(PLOS, 2016) Ramu, Vemanna S.; Paramanantham, Anjugam; Ramegowda, Venkategowda; Mohan-Raju, Basavaiah; Udayakumar, Makarla; Senthil-Kumar, Muthappa
In nature plants are often simultaneously challenged by different biotic and abiotic stresses. Although the mechanisms underlying plant responses against single stress have been studied considerably, plant tolerance mechanisms under combined stress is not understood. Also, the mechanism used to combat independently and sequentially occurring many number of biotic and abiotic stresses has also not systematically studied. From this context, in this study, we attempted to explore the shared response of sunflower plants to many independent stresses by using meta-analysis of publically available transcriptome data and transcript profiling by quantitative PCR. Further, we have also analyzed the possible role of the genes so identified in contributing to combined stress tolerance. Meta-analysis of transcriptomic data from many abiotic and biotic stresses indicated the common representation of oxidative stress responsive genes. Further, menadione-mediated oxidative stress in sunflower seedlings showed similar pattern of changes in the oxidative stress related genes. Based on this a large scale screening of 55 sunflower genotypes was performed under menadione stress and those contrasting in oxidative stress tolerance were identified. Further to confirm the role of genes identified in individual and combined stress tolerance the contrasting genotypes were individually and simultaneously challenged with few abiotic and biotic stresses. The tolerant hybrid showed reduced levels of stress damage both under combined stress and few independent stresses. Transcript profiling of the genes identified from meta-analysis in the tolerant hybrid also indicated that the selected genes were up-regulated under individual and combined stresses. Our results indicate that menadione-based screening can identify genotypes not only tolerant to multiple number of individual biotic and abiotic stresses, but also the combined stresses.
Two chloroplast-localized proteins: AtNHR2A and AtNHR2B, contribute to callose deposition during nonhost disease resistance in Arabidopsis
(American Phytopathological Society, 2018) Singh, Raksha; Lee, Seonghee; Ortega, Laura; Ramu, Vemanna S.; Senthil-Kumar, Muthappa; Blancaflor, Elison B.; Rojas, Clemencia M.; Mysore, Kirankumar S.
Plants are naturally resistant to most pathogens through a broad and durable defense response called nonhost disease resistance. Nonhost disease resistance is a complex process that includes preformed physical and chemical barriers and induced responses. In spite of its importance, many components of nonhost disease resistance remain to be identified and characterized. Using virus-induced gene silencing in Nicotiana benthamiana, we discovered a novel gene that we named NbNHR2 (N. benthamiana nonhost resistance 2). NbNHR2-silenced plants were susceptible to the non-adapted pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato T1 that does not cause disease in wild-type or non-silenced N. benthamiana plants. We found two orthologous genes in Arabidopsis thaliana: AtNHR2A and AtNHR2B. Similar to the results obtained in N. benthamiana, Atnhr2a and Atnhr2b mutants were susceptible to the non-adapted bacterial pathogen of A. thaliana, P. syringae pv. tabaci. We further found that these mutants were also defective in callose deposition. AtNHR2A and AtNHR2B fluorescent protein fusions transiently expressed in N. benthamiana localized predominantly to chloroplasts and a few unidentified dynamic puncta. RFP-AtNHR2A and AtNHR2B-GFP displayed overlapping signals in chloroplasts indicating that the two proteins could interact; a notion supported by co-immunoprecipitation studies. We propose that AtNHR2A and AtNHR2B are new components of a chloroplast-signaling pathway that activates callose deposition to the cell wall in response to bacterial pathogens.