Every cloud has a silver lining: how abiotic stresses affect gene expression in plant-pathogen interactions

Abstract

The current context of environmental and climate changes deeply influences the outcome of plant-pathogen interactions. Indeed, nowadays it is clear that abiotic stresses strongly affect biotic interactions at various levels. For instance, physiological parameters such as plant architecture and tissue organization along with primary and specialized metabolism are affected by environmental constraints, thus making the plant a more or less worthy host for a given pathogen. Moreover, abiotic stresses can affect the timely expression of plant defense and pathogen virulence. Indeed, several studies have shown that variations in temperature, water and mineral nutrient availability impact plant defense gene expression. Virulence gene expression, known to be crucial for disease outbreak, is also affected by environmental conditions, potentially modifying existing pathosystems and paving the way for emerging pathogens. The present review summarizes the current knowledge on the impact of abiotic stress on biotic interactions at the transcriptional level in both the plant and the pathogen side of the interaction. We performed a meta-data analysis of four different combinations of abiotic and biotic stresses. 197 modulated genes were common to all four combinations, with a strong defense-related GO term enrichment. We also describe the multistress-specific responses of selected defense-related genes.

LPMO-oxidized cellulose oligosaccharides evoke immunity in Arabidopsis conferring resistance towards necrotrophic fungus B. cinerea

“…SIF2 interacts with the FLS2-BAK1 PRR complex and regulates MAMP-dependent PTI pathway, involving MPK kinases, WRKY TFs and FRK1 and pathogen-dependent stomata closure 50 , 51 . Moreover, through a meta-data analysis, we recently identified SIF4 as constantly expressed during several combined biotic and abiotic stress conditions 52 . In the results presented here, we showed that both SIF2 and SIF4 play a crucial role in signaling the AA9_COS-dependent responses such as camalexin production (Fig.…”

Global Warming, Climate Change, and Environmental Pollution: Recipe for a Multifactorial Stress Combination Disaster

“…In addition to stomatal responses, root architecture is also altered during a stress combination [58,59], and nutrient availability plays a key role in this response [58,60,61]. In addition to studies examining the simultaneous exposure of plants to two or more stresses (described in the preceding text), studies of sequential exposure of plants to different stresses, or their combination, revealed a similar complexity in plant responses to a stress combination [61][62][63]. The developmental stage of the plant, circadian clock, plant nutrition, light quality, order of occurrence, and time of day could therefore play a key role in shaping the overall response of plants to a stress combination.…”

Nitrogen Supply and Host-Plant Genotype Modulate the Transcriptomic Profile of Plasmodiophora brassicae

“…brassicae transcriptome was influenced by host-plant nitrogen supply, but this modulation was very much dependent on host-plant genotype. Although numerous other studies have reported the influence of abiotic factors on pathogen gene expression (Fagard et al, 2014;Zarattini et al, 2021), probably few of them have reported the need for cautious multi-genotype evaluation before drawing general conclusions. The regulation of only 102 of P. brassicae genes was clearly associated to the lownitrogen conditional resistance (i.e., to low rate pathogen growth in infected roots).…”