Transcription factors WRKY70 and WRKY11 served as regulators in rhizobacterium Bacillus cereus AR156-induced systemic resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 in Arabidopsis.

The activation of both the SA and JA/ETsignalling pathways may lead to more efficient general and broad resistance to Pst DC3000 by non-pathogenic rhizobacteria. However, the mechanisms that govern this simultaneous activation are unclear. Using Arabidopsis as a model system, two transcription factors, WRKY11 and WRKY70, were identified as important regulators involved in Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR) triggered by Bacillus cereus AR156. The results revealed that AR156 treatment significantly stimulated the transcription of WRKY70, but suppressed that of WRKY11 in Arabidopsis leaves. Furthermore, they were shown to be required for AR156 enhancing the activation of cellular defence responses and the transcription level of the plant defence response gene. Overexpression of the two transcription factors in Arabidopsis also showed that they were essential for AR156 to elicit ISR. AR156-triggered ISR was completely abolished in the double mutant of the two transcription factors, but still partially retained in the single mutants, indicating that the regulation of the two transcription factors depend on two different pathways. The target genes of the two transcription factors and epistasis analysis suggested that WRKY11 regulated AR156-triggered ISR through activating the JA signalling pathway, and WRKY70 regulated the ISR through activating the SA signalling pathway. In addition, both WRKY11 and WRKY70 modulated AR156-triggered ISR in a NPR1-dependent manner. In conclusion, WRKY11 and WRKY70 played an important role in regulating the signalling transduction pathways involved in AR156-triggered ISR. This study is the first to illustrate the mechanism by which a single rhizobacterium elicits ISR by simultaneously activating both the SA and JA/ET signalling pathways.