MAP kinase cascades activated by SlMAPKKKε and their involvement in tomato
resistance to bacterial pathogens
Authors: Sessa Guido , Martin Gregory 
Published: March 2022

The research problem: Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) and Xanthomonas campestrispv. vesicatoria (Xcv) are the causal agents of tomato bacterial speck and spot diseases, respectively. These pathogens colonize the aerial parts of the plant and cause economically important losses to tomato yield worldwide. Control of speck and spot diseases by cultural practices or chemicals is not effective and genetic sources of resistance are very limited. In previous research supported by BARD, by gene expression profiling we identified signaling components involved in resistance to Xcvstrains. Follow up experiments revealed that a tomato gene encoding a MAP kinase kinase kinase (MAPKKKe) is required for resistance to Xcvand Pststrains. Goals: Central goal of this research was to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which MAPKKKεand associated MAP kinase cascades regulate host resistance. Specific objectives were to: 1. Determine whether MAPKKKεplays a broad role in defense signaling in plants; 2. Identify components of MAP kinase cascades acting downstream of MAPKKKε; 3. Determine the role of phosphorylation-related events in the function of MAPKKKε; 4. Isolate proteins directly activated by MAPKKKε-associatedMAPK modules. Our main achievements during this research program are in the following major areas: 1. Characterization of MAPKKKεas a positive regulator of cell death and dissection of downstream MAP kinase cascades (Melech-Bonfil et al., 2010; Melech-Bonfil and Sessa, 2011). The MAPKKKεgene was found to be required for tomato resistance to Xcvand Pstbacterial strains and for hypersensitive response cell death triggered by different R gene/effector gene pairs. In addition, overexpression analysis demonstrated that MAPKKKεis a positive regulator of cell death, whose activity depends on an intact kinase catalytic domain. Epistatic experiments delineated a signaling cascade downstream of MAPKKKεand identified SIPKK as a negative regulator of MAPKKKε-mediated cell death. Finally, genes encoding MAP kinase components downstream of MAPKKKεwere shown to contribute to tomato resistance to Xcv. 2. Identification of tomato proteins that interact with MAPKKKεand play a role in plant immunity (Oh et al., 2011). We identified proteins that interact with MAPKKKε. Among them, the 14-3-3 protein TFT7 was required for cell death mediated by several R proteins. In addition, TFT7 interacted with the MAPKK SlMKK2 and formed homodimersin vivo. Thus, TFT7 is proposed to recruit SlMKK2 and MAPKKK client proteins for efficient signal transfer. 3. Development of a chemical genetic approach to identify substrates of MAPKKKε-activated MAP kinase cascades (Salomon et al., 2009, 2011). This approach is based on engineering the kinase of interest to accept unnatural ATP analogs. For its implementation to identify substrates of MAPKKKε-activated MAP kinase modules, we sensitized the tomato MAP kinase SlMPK3 to ATP analogs and verified its ability to use them as phosphodonors. By using the sensitized SlMPK3 and radiolabeled N6(benzyl)ATP it should be possible to tag direct substrates of this kinase. 4. Development of methods to study immunity triggered by pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) in tomato and N. benthamiana plants (Kim et al., 2009; Nguyen et al. 2010). We developed protocols for measuring various PTI-associatedphenotypes, including bacterial populations after pretreatment of leaves with PAMPs, induction of reporter genes, callose deposition at the cell wall, activation of MAP kinases, and a luciferase-based reporter system for use in protoplasts. Scientific and agricultural significance: Our research activities discovered and characterized a signal transduction pathway mediating plant immunity to bacterial pathogens. Increased understanding of molecular mechanisms of immunity will allow them to be manipulated by both molecular breeding and genetic engineering to produce plants with enhanced natural defense against disease. In addition, we successfully developed new biochemical and molecular methods that can be implemented in the study of plant immunity and other aspects of plant biology.