RNA-Binding Proteins in Plant Immunity

Abstract

Plant defence responses against pathogen infection are crucial to plant survival. The high degree of regulation of plant immunity occurs both transcriptionally and posttranscriptionally. Once transcribed, target gene RNA must be processed prior to translation. This includes polyadenylation, 5′capping, editing, splicing, and mRNA export. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) have been implicated at each level of RNA processing. Previous research has primarily focused on structural RNA-binding proteins of yeast and mammals; however, more recent work has characterized a number of plant RBPs and revealed their roles in plant immune responses. This paper provides an update on the known functions of RBPs in plant immune response regulation. Future in-depth analysis of RBPs and other related players will unveil the sophisticated regulatory mechanisms of RNA processing during plant immune responses.

Ribonuclease activity of buckwheat

“…I t is well known that plant virus-resistance mecha nism is a complex process that includes interaction of the components at different levels [1,2]. Research of various details and peculiarities that underlie it is a highly relevant issue, because the obtained information, may help further increase virus resistance of economically-valuable plants.…”

Phloem RNA-binding proteins as potential components of the long-distance RNA transport system

“…Remarkably, a significant number of them have no counterpart in animals. Thus, these plant-specific RBPs are likely involved in plant-specific functions (Lorkovic, 2009), such as chloroplast mRNA stability and translation, hormone signaling and plant immunity (Woloshen et al, 2011). The phloem is a plant-specific conduit (Dinant et al, 2010; Knoblauch and Oparka, 2012; Zhang et al, 2012) that delivers not only sugars, amino acids, mineral nutrients and hormones, but also peptides, proteins and RNAs from autotrophic to heterotrophic tissues (Lough and Lucas, 2006; Dinant and Lemoine, 2010; Atkins et al, 2011).…”

Plant defense responses against viral and bacterial pathogen infections. Focus on RNA-binding proteins (RBPs)

“…This includes polyadenylation, 5' capping, editing, splicing, and mRNA export. RBPs have been implicated at each level of RNA processing [4]. Cellular RNA-binding proteins perform diverse roles in cells, such as regulating RNA stability, splicing or mRNA export of immune-response transcripts [41].…”

“…Being RNA-binding components of the RISC, AGO1, AGO2, and AGO7 participate in RNAi as well [27,28]. Modified from [4].…”