Mauch-Mani, Brigitte

2006, Conrath, Uwe, Beckers, Gerold J. M., Flors, Victor, García-Agustín, Pilar, Jakab, Gábor, Mauch, Felix, Newman, Mari-Anne, Pieterse, Corné M. J., Poinssot, Benoit, Pozo, María J., Pugin, A., Schaffrath, U., Ton, Jurriaan, Wendehenne, D., Zimmerli, L., Mauch-Mani, Brigitte

2005, Mauch-Mani, Brigitte, Mauch, Felix

The effect of the abiotic stress hormone abscisic acid on plant disease resistance is a neglected field of research. With few exceptions, abscisic acid has been considered a negative regulator of disease resistance. This negative effect appears to be due to the interference of abscisic acid with biotic stress signaling that is regulated by salicylic acid, jasmonic acid and ethylene, and to an additional effect of ABA on shared components of stress signaling. However, recent research shows that abscisic acid can also be implicated in increasing the resistance of plants towards pathogens via its positive effect on callose deposition.

2002, Chen, Wenqiong, Provart, Nicholas J., Glazebrook, Jane, Katagiri, Fumiaki, Chang, Hur-Song, Eulgem, Thomas, Mauch, Felix, Luan, Sheng, Zou, Guangzhou, Whitham, Steve A., Budworth, Paul R., Tao, Yi, Xie, Zhiyi, Chen, Xi, Lam, Steve, Kreps, Joel A., Harper, Jeffery F., Si-Ammour, Azeddine, Mauch-Mani, Brigitte, Heinlein, Manfred, Kobayashi, Kappei, Hohn, Thomas, Dangl, Jeffery L., Wang, Xun, Zhu, Tong

Numerous studies have shown that transcription factors are important in regulating plant responses to environmental stress. However, specific functions for most of the genes encoding transcription factors are unclear. In this study, we used mRNA profiles generated from microarray experiments to deduce the functions of genes encoding known and putative Arabidopsis transcription factors. The mRNA levels of 402 distinct transcription factor genes were examined at different developmental stages and under various stress conditions. Transcription factors potentially controlling downstream gene expression in stress signal transduction pathways were identified by observed activation and repression of the genes after certain stress treatments. The mRNA levels of a number of previously characterized transcription factor genes were changed significantly in connection with other regulatory pathways, suggesting their multifunctional nature. The expression of 74 transcription factor genes responsive to bacterial pathogen infection was reduced or abolished in mutants that have defects in salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, or ethylene signaling. This observation indicates that the regulation of these genes is mediated at least partly by these plant hormones and suggests that the transcription factor genes are involved in the regulation of additional downstream responses mediated by these hormones. Among the 43 transcription factor genes that are induced during senescence, 28 of them also are induced by stress treatment, suggesting extensive overlap responses to these stresses. Statistical analysis of the promoter regions of the genes responsive to cold stress indicated unambiguous enrichment of known conserved transcription factor binding sites for the responses. A highly conserved novel promoter motif was identified in genes responding to a broad set of pathogen infection treatments. This observation strongly suggests that the corresponding transcription factors play general and crucial roles in the coordinated regulation of these specific regulons. Although further validation is needed, these correlative results provide a vast amount of information that can guide hypothesis-driven research to elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in transcriptional regulation and signaling networks in plants.

2001, Mauch, Felix, Mauch-Mani, Brigitte, Gaille, Catherine, Kull, Beatriz, Haas, Dieter, Reimmann, Cornelia

2006, Conrath, Uwe, Beckers, Gerold J. M., Flors, Victor, García-Agustín, Pilar, Jakab, Gábor, Mauch, Felix, Newman, Mari-Anne, Pieterse, Corné M. J., Poinssot, Benoit, Pozo, María J., Pugin, Alain, Schaffrath, Ulrich, Ton, Jurriaan, Wendehenne, David, Zimmerli, Laurent, Mauch-Mani, Brigitte

Infection of plants by necrotizing pathogens or colonization of plant roots with certain beneficial microbes causes the induction of a unique physiological state called “ priming”. The primed state can also be induced by treatment of plants with various natural and synthetic compounds. Primed plants display either faster, stronger, or both activation of the various cellular defense responses that are induced following attack by either pathogens or insects or in response to abiotic stress. Although the phenomenon has been known for decades, most progress in our understanding of priming has been made over the past few years. Here, we summarize the current knowledge of priming in various induced-resistance phenomena in plants.

2003, Si-Ammour, Azeddine, Mauch-Mani, Brigitte, Mauch, Felix

Induced resistance was studied in the model pathosystem Arabidopsis-Phytophthora brassicae (formerly P. porri) in comparison with the agronomically important late blight disease of potato caused by Phytophthora infestans. For the quantification of disease progress, both Phytophthora species were transformed with the vector p34GFN carrying the selectable marker gene neomycine phosphotransferase (nptII) and the reporter gene green fluorescent protein (gfp). Eighty five per cent of the transformants of P. brassicae and P. infestans constitutively expressed GFP at high levels at all developmental stages both in vitro and in planta. Transformants with high GFP expression and normal in vitro growth and virulence were selected to quantify pathogen growth by measuring the in planta emitted GFP fluorescence. This non-destructive monitoring of the infection process was applied to analyse the efficacy of two chemical inducers of disease resistance, a functional SA-analogue, benzothiadiazole (BTH), and β-aminobutyric acid (BABA) which is involved in priming mechanisms of unknown nature. BABA pre-treatment (300 µm) via soil drench applied 24 h before inoculation completely protected the susceptible Arabidopsis accession Landsberg erecta (Ler) from infection with P. brassicae. A similar treatment with BTH (330 µm) did not induce resistance. Spraying the susceptible potato cultivar Bintje with BABA (1 mm) 2 days before inoculation resulted in a phenocopy of the incompatible interaction shown by the resistant potato cultivar Matilda while BTH (1.5 mm) did not protect Bintje from severe infection. Thus, in both pathosystems, the mechanisms of induced resistance appeared to be similar, suggesting that the Arabidopsis-P. brassicae pathosystem is a promising model for the molecular analysis of induced resistance mechanisms of potato against the late blight disease.

2001, Roetschi, Alexandra, Si-Ammour, Azeddine, Belbahri, Lassaâd, Mauch, Felix, Mauch-Mani, Brigitte

Arabidopsis accessions were screened with isolates of Phytophthora porri originally isolated from other crucifer species. The described Arabidopsis–Phytophthora pathosystem shows the characteristics of a facultative biotrophic interaction similar to that seen in agronomically important diseases caused by Phytophthora species. In susceptible accessions, extensive colonization of the host tissue occurred and sexual and asexual spores were formed. In incompatible combinations, the plants reacted with a hypersensitive response (HR) and the formation of papillae at the sites of attempted penetration. Defence pathway mutants such as jar1 (jasmonic acid-insensitive), etr1 (ethylene receptor mutant) and ein2 (ethylene-insensitive) remained resistant towards P. porri. However, pad2, a mutant with reduced production of the phytoalexin camalexin, was hyper-susceptible. The accumulation of salicylic acid (SA) and PR1 protein was strongly reduced in pad2. Surprisingly, this lack of SA accumulation does not appear to be the cause of the hyper-susceptibility because interference with SA signalling in nahG plants or sid2 or npr1 mutants had only a minor effect on resistance. In addition, the functional SA analogue benzothiadiazol (BTH) did not induce resistance in susceptible plants including pad2. Similarly, the complete blockage of camalexin biosynthesis in pad3 did not cause susceptibility. Resistance of Arabidopsis against P. porri appears to depend on unknown defence mechanisms that are under the control of PAD2.

2005, Mauch-Mani, Brigitte, Mauch, Felix

2002, Chen, Wenqiong, Provart, Nicholas J., Glazebrook, Jane, Katagiri, Fumiaki, Chang, Hur-Song, Eulgem, Thomas, Mauch, Felix, Luan, Sheng, Zou, Guangzhou, Whitham, Steve A., Budworth, P. R., Tao, Y., Xie, Z., Chen, X. I., Lam, J., Kreps, A., Harper, J. F., Si-Ammour, Azeddine, Mauch-Mani, Brigitte, Heinlein, M., Kobayashi, K. S., Hohn, T., Dangl, J. L., Wang, X., Zhu, T.

2001, Mauch, Felix, Mauch-Mani, Brigitte, Gaille, Catherine, Kull, Beatriz, Haas, Dieter, Reimmann, Cornelia

Salicylic acid (SA) plays a central role as a signalling molecule involved in plant defense against microbial attack. Genetic manipulation of SA biosynthesis may therefore help to generate plants that are more disease-resistant. By fusing the two bacterial genes pchA and pchB from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which encode isochorismate synthase and isochorismate pyruvate-lyase, respectively, we have engineered a novel hybrid enzyme with salicylate synthase (SAS) activity. The pchB-A fusion was expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana under the control of the constitutive cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter, with targeting of the gene product either to the cytosol (c-SAS plants) or to the chloroplast (p-SAS plants). In p-SAS plants, the amount of free and conjugated SA was increased more than 20-fold above wild type (WT) level, indicating that SAS is functional in Arabidopsis. P-SAS plants showed a strongly dwarfed phenotype and produced very few seeds. Dwarfism could be caused by the high SA levels per se or, perhaps more likely, by a depletion of the chorismate or isochorismate pools of the chloroplast. Targeting of SAS to the cytosol caused a slight increase in free SA and a significant threefold increase in conjugated SA, probably reflecting limited chorismate availability in this compartment. Although this modest increase in total SA content did not strongly induce the resistance marker PR-1, it resulted nevertheless in enhanced disease resistance towards a virulent isolate of Peronospora parasitica. Increased resistance of c-SAS lines was paralleled with reduced seed production. Taken together, these results illustrate that SAS is a potent tool for the manipulation of SA levels in plants.