Jia Xianqing, Xu Zhuang, Xu Lei, Frene Juan P, Gonin Mathieu, Wang Long, Yu Jiahong, Castrillo Gabriel, Yi Keke
Key Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology Western China, Ministry of Education, Provincial Key Laboratory of Biotechnology of Shaanxi Province, College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China.
State Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Arid and Semi-arid Arable Land in Northern China, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.
J Integr Plant Biol. 2025 Feb;67(2):345-354. doi: 10.1111/jipb.13814. Epub 2024 Dec 4.
Besides playing a crucial role in plant immunity via the nonexpressor of pathogenesis-related (NPR) proteins, increasing evidence shows that salicylic acid (SA) can also regulate plant root growth. However, the transcriptional regulatory network controlling this SA response in plant roots is still unclear. Here, we found that NPR1 and WRKY45, the central regulators of SA response in rice leaves, control only a reduced sector of the root SA signaling network. We demonstrated that SA attenuates root growth via a novel NPR1/WRKY45-independent pathway. Furthermore, using regulatory network analysis and mutant characterization, we identified a set of new NPR1/WRKY45-independent regulators that conservedly modulate the root development and root-associated microbiota composition in both Oryza sativa (monocot) and Arabidopsis thaliana (dicot) in response to SA. Our results established the SA signaling as a central element regulating plant root functions under ecologically relevant conditions. These results provide new insights to understand how regulatory networks control plant responses to abiotic and biotic stresses.
除了通过病程相关蛋白非表达子（NPR）在植物免疫中发挥关键作用外，越来越多的证据表明水杨酸（SA）还可以调节植物根系生长。然而，控制植物根系中这种SA反应的转录调控网络仍不清楚。在这里，我们发现水稻叶片中SA反应的核心调节因子NPR1和WRKY45仅控制根系SA信号网络的一个较小部分。我们证明SA通过一条新的不依赖NPR1/WRKY45的途径减弱根系生长。此外，通过调控网络分析和突变体表型鉴定，我们鉴定出一组新的不依赖NPR1/WRKY45的调节因子，它们在水稻（单子叶植物）和拟南芥（双子叶植物）中保守地调节根系发育和根系相关微生物群组成以响应SA。我们的结果确立了SA信号作为在生态相关条件下调节植物根系功能的核心要素。这些结果为理解调控网络如何控制植物对非生物和生物胁迫的反应提供了新的见解。
