Tomato LysM receptor kinase 4 mediates chitin-elicited fungal resistance in both leaves and fruit

Abstract

Fungal infection is a major cause of crop and fruit losses. Recognition of chitin, a component of fungal cell walls, endows plants with enhanced fungal resistance. Here, we found that mutation of tomato LysM receptor kinase 4 (SlLYK4) and chitin elicitor receptor kinase 1 (SlCERK1) impaired chitin-induced immune responses in tomato leaves. Compared with the wild type, sllyk4 and slcerk1 mutant leaves were more susceptible to Botrytis cinerea (gray mold). SlLYK4 extracellular domain showed strong binding affinity to chitin, and the binding of SlLYK4 induced SlLYK4-SlCERK1 association. Remarkably, qRT–PCR analysis indicated that SlLYK4 was highly expressed in tomato fruit, and β- GLUCURONIDASE (GUS) expression driven by the SlLYK4 promoter was observed in tomato fruit. Furthermore, SlLYK4 overexpression enhanced disease resistance not only in leaves but also in fruit. Our study suggests that chitin-mediated immunity plays a role in fruit, providing a possible way to reduce fungal infection-related fruit losses by enhancing the chitin-induced immune responses.

Acknowledgements

We thank Xiao-xiao Feng from the agricultural experiment station of Zhejiang University for her assistance with plant growth and Wen Wang from the Institute of Biotechnology of Zhejiang University for her help with the phylogenetic analysis. This work was supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province (2021C02009, 2021C02064-7, and 2022C02016), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770263 and 31970279), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFD1000800).

Author contributions

Y.A. conducted most of the experiments and analyzed the data. Q.L., C.L., and R.W. helped with the tomato transformation. X.S. helped with the VIGS experiment. S.C. and X.C. helped with Sclerotinia inoculation. Y.A., X.Q., and Y.L. prepared the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability

The data and materials used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supplementary data

Supplementary data is available at Horticulture Research online.

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