Role of host transcription factors in modulating defense response during plant-virus interaction

Abstract

Plants are vulnerable to several environmental stresses either biotic or abiotic due to their sessile nature. Consequently, they assimilate various responses to counter and acclimate in ever-changing environments. One of the fascinating response is transcriptional reprogramming of cell leading to defense or stress adaptation. It is imperative to recognize transcription factors which are associated with plant defense responses against biotic agents such as viruses. Members of families belonging to WRKY family of transcription factor, myeloblastosis-related proteins (MYB), basic leucine zipper (bZIP), Apetela2/ethylene-responsive element binding (AP2/ERF), and NAC transcription factors have been shown to be associated with innumerable defense response against plant virus. These TF family members interact directly or indirectly to modulate defense response by activation or repression of downstream signaling pathways. Hence the gaining insight between plant virus and TFs interplay and deciphering the alterations in defense pathway are the prerequisite to engineer crops for tolerance to biotic stresses. In this chapter, we have attempted to summarize the explicit role of TFs in modulating the expression of defense genes during plant-virus interaction.