The type B Arabidopsis Response Regulators (ARRs) of Arabidopsis thaliana are transcription factors that act as positive regulators in the two-component cytokinin signaling pathway. We employed a mutant-based approach to perform a detailed characterization of the roles of ARR1, ARR10, and ARR12 in plant growth and development. The most pronounced phenotype was found in the arr1-3 arr10-5 arr12-1 triple loss-of-function mutant, which showed almost complete insensitivity to high levels of exogenously applied cytokinins. The triple mutant exhibited reduced stature due to decreased cell division in the shoot, enhanced seed size, increased sensitivity to light, altered chlorophyll and anthocyanin concentrations, and an aborted primary root with protoxylem but no metaxylem. Microarray analysis revealed that expression of the majority of cytokinin-regulated genes requires the function of ARR1, ARR10, and ARR12. Characterization of double mutants revealed differing contributions of the type B ARRs to mutant phenotypes. Our results support a model in which cytokinin regulates a wide array of downstream responses through the action of a multistep phosphorelay that culminates in transcriptional regulation by ARR1, ARR10, and ARR12.

The gaseous hormone ethylene is perceived in Arabidopsis by a five member receptor family that consists of the subfamily 1 receptors ETR1 and ERS1 and the subfamily 2 receptors ETR2, ERS2, and EIN4. Previous work has demonstrated that the basic functional unit for the ethylene receptor, ETR1, is a disulfidelinked homodimer. We demonstrate here that ethylene receptors isolated from Arabidopsis also interact with each other through noncovalent interactions. Evidence that ETR1 associates with other ethylene receptors was obtained by co-purification of ETR1 with tagged versions of ERS1, ETR2, ERS2, and EIN4 from Arabidopsis membrane extracts. ETR1 preferentially associated with the subfamily 2 receptors compared with the subfamily 1 receptor ERS1, but ethylene treatment affected the interactions and relative composition of the receptor complexes. When transgenically expressed in yeast, ETR1 and ERS2 can form disulfide-linked heterodimers. In plant extracts, however, the association of ETR1 and ERS2 can be largely disrupted by treatment with SDS, supporting a higher order noncovalent interaction between the receptors. Yeast two-hybrid analysis demonstrated that the receptor GAF domains are capable of mediating heteromeric receptor interactions. Kinetic analysis of ethylene-insensitive mutants of ETR1 is consistent with their dominance being due in part to an ability to associate with other ethylene receptors. These data suggest that the ethylene receptors exist in plants as clusters in a manner potentially analogous to that found with the histidine kinase-linked chemoreceptors of bacteria and that interactions among receptors contribute to ethylene signal output.

Microbial patterns are recognized by cell-surface receptors to initiate pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) in plants. Receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases (RLCKs), such as BIK1, and calcium-dependent protein kinases (CPKs) are engaged during PTI to activate the NADPH oxidase RBOHD for reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. It is unknown whether protein kinases besides CPKs and RLCKs participate in RBOHD regulation. We screened mutants in all ten Arabidopsis MAP4 kinases (MAP4Ks) and identified the conserved MAP4K SIK1 as a positive regulator of PTI. sik1 mutants were compromised in their ability to elicit the ROS burst in response to microbial features and exhibited compromised PTI to bacterial infection. SIK1 directly interacts with, phosphorylates, and stabilizes BIK1 in a kinase activity-dependent manner. Furthermore, SIK1 directly interacts with and phosphorylates RBOHD upon flagellin perception. Thus, SIK1 positively regulates immunity by stabilizing BIK1 and activating RBOHD to promote the extracellular ROS burst.

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SUMMARY In the absence of pathogen infection, plant effector-triggered immune (ETI) receptors are maintained in a preactivation state by intermolecular interactions with other host proteins. Pathogen effector-induced alterations activate the receptor. In Arabidopsis, the ETI receptor RPM1 is activated via bacterial effector AvrB-induced phosphorylation of the RPM1-interacting protein RIN4 at Threonine 166. We find that RIN4 also interacts with the prolyl-peptidyl isomerase (PPIase) ROC1, which is reduced upon RIN4 Thr166 phosphorylation. ROC1 suppresses RPM1 immunity in a PPIase-dependent manner. Consistent with this, RIN4 Pro149 undergoes cis/trans isomerization in the presence of ROC1. While the RIN4P149V mutation abolishes RPM1 resistance, the deletion of Pro149 leads to RPM1 activation in the absence of RIN4 phosphorylation. These results support a model in which RPM1 directly senses conformational changes in RIN4 surrounding Pro149 that is controlled by ROC1. RIN4 Thr166 phosphorylation indirectly regulates RPM1 resistance by modulating the ROC1-mediated RIN4 isomerization.

We experimentally present an ultrabroad terahertz (THz) bandpass filter based on a composite metamaterial (CMM) by exciting its multiple resonances. This metamaterial-based filter, consisting of a metal-dielectric-metal sandwiched structure, possesses a notable spectral-filtering capability with a 0.5-THz-broad bandwidth and excellent band-edge transitions of 140% THz and 182% THz in the THz-gap region. Furthermore, we manifest the mechanism for each of the resonances and the coupling within the composite metamaterial. This realization enables the capacity for engineering the electromagnetic properties to develop other complex optical functionalities. An example of a high-profile dualband THz bandpass filter is also proposed theoretically in this work.

Bacterial pathogens deliver multiple effector proteins into host cells to facilitate bacterial growth. HopQ1 is an effector from Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 that is conserved across multiple bacterial pathogens which infect plants. HopQ1’s central region possesses some homology to nucleoside hydrolases, but possesses an alternative aspartate motif not found in characterized enzymes. A structural model was generated for HopQ1 based on the E. coli RihB nucleoside hydrolase and the role of HopQ1’s potential catalytic residues for promoting bacterial virulence and recognition in Nicotiana tabacum was investigated. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing HopQ1 exhibit enhanced disease susceptibility to DC3000. HopQ1 can also promote bacterial virulence on tomato when naturally delivered from DC3000. HopQ1’s nucleoside hydrolase-like domain alone is sufficient to promote bacterial virulence, and putative catalytic residues are required for virulence promotion during bacterial infection of tomato and in transgenic Arabidopsis lines. HopQ1 is recognized and elicits cell death when transiently expressed in N. tabacum. Residues required to promote bacterial virulence were dispensable for HopQ1’s cell death promoting activities in N. tabacum. Although HopQ1 has some homology to nucleoside hydrolases, we were unable to detect HopQ1 enzymatic activity or nucleoside binding capability using standard substrates. Thus, it is likely that HopQ1 promotes pathogen virulence by hydrolyzing alternative ribose-containing substrates in planta.

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