Increasing the resilience of plant immunity to a warming climate

Abstract

Extreme weather conditions associated with climate change affect many aspects of plant and animal life, including the response to infectious diseases. Production of salicylic acid (SA), a central plant defence hormone1–3, is particularly vulnerable to suppression by short periods of hot weather above the normal plant growth temperature range via an unknown mechanism4–7. Here we show that suppression of SA production in Arabidopsis thaliana at 28 °C is independent of PHYTOCHROME B8,9 (phyB) and EARLY FLOWERING 310 (ELF3), which regulate thermo-responsive plant growth and development. Instead, we found that formation of GUANYLATE BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE 3 (GBPL3) defence-activated biomolecular condensates11 (GDACs) was reduced at the higher growth temperature. The altered GDAC formation in vivo is linked to impaired recruitment of GBPL3 and SA-associated Mediator subunits to the promoters of CBP60g and SARD1, which encode master immune transcription factors. Unlike many other SA signalling components, including the SA receptor and biosynthetic genes, optimized CBP60g expression was sufficient to broadly restore SA production, basal immunity and effector-triggered immunity at the elevated growth temperature without significant growth trade-offs. CBP60g family transcription factors are widely conserved in plants12. These results have implications for safeguarding the plant immune system as well as understanding the concept of the plant–pathogen–environment disease triangle and the emergence of new disease epidemics in a warming climate.

Single-cell profiling of complex plant responses toPseudomonas syringaeinfection

“…CPB60g encodes a master immune transcription factor that works in parallel with SARD1 to synthesize the plant defense hormone SA (Kim et al, 2022; Sun et al, 2015). In the absence of pathogen infection, CBP60g is expressed surrounding trichomes and in skirt cells at the base of trichomes (Figure 5D).…”

The OsCBL8–OsCIPK17 Module Regulates Seedling Growth and Confers Resistance to Heat and Drought in Rice

“…These results suggest that the OsCBL8–OsCIPK17 module can regulate growth and development and defense strategies by regulating IAA, ABA, and JA levels. A recent study has shown that SA is involved in plant hyperthermia and immune responses [ 28 ]. However, whether the regulation function of this module depends on SA requires further study.…”

Light prevents pathogen-induced aqueous microenvironments via potentiation of salicylic acid signaling

“…Benzothiadiazole (BTH) is an analog of SA and, like SA, triggers systemic acquired resistance in plants and confers protection against Pst (Görlach et al, 1996; Kim et al, 2022). Since SA biosynthesis and signaling are essential for preventing water-soaking under LL (Fig.…”