The 30th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR 2019)

682 / 2019-05-01 01:45:33

MPK3/6-Mediated ERF72 Phosphorylation Positive Regulates WRKY33 Expression and Resistant to Botrytis cinerea

Phosphorylation,Botrytis,ERF72,WRKY33

Plenary track > Biotic Stress

Ethylene Response Factor (ERF) is a large transcription factor family, of which had been reported to involve in plant resistant to pathogens. However, the regulation and the target genes of them had rarely been studied. Here we identified ERF72 in regulating Arabidopsis resistance to the necrotrophic pathogen Botrytis cinerea. erf72 mutant was more susceptible to B. cinerea, while overexpression of ERF72 increased resistance. By analyzing of RNA-seq data, we identified WRKY33 was a target of ERF72. Electrophoretic mobility shift and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed that ERF72 binds to WRKY33 promoter in vitro and in vivo. Previous study had been found that MPK3 and MPK6 phosphorylate ERF72 in vitro. We further proved this phosphorylation exist in vivo when B. cinerea infects. Using transactivation assays in protoplasts, we found phosphorylation of ERF72 improve its transcriptional activity. Taken together, our finding indicated that ERF72 is phosphorylated by MPK3/MPK6 and positively regulates WRKY33 expression, which play an important role in plant resistant to B. cinerea.