Jujube witches’ broom phytoplasmas inhibit ZjBRC1-mediated abscisic acid metabolism to induce shoot proliferation

Abstract

Jujube witches’ broom (JWB) phytoplasmas parasitize the sieve tubes of diseased phloem and cause an excessive proliferation of axillary shoots from dormant lateral buds to favour their transmission. In previous research, two JWB effectors, SJP1 and SJP2, were identified to induce lateral bud outgrowth by disrupting ZjBRC1-mediated auxin flux. However, the pathogenesis of JWB disease remains largely unknown. Here, tissue-specific transcriptional reprogramming was examined to gain insight into the genetic mechanisms acting inside jujube lateral buds under JWB phytoplasma infection. JWB phytoplasmas modulated a series of plant signalling networks involved in lateral bud development and defence, including auxin, abscisic acid (ABA), ethylene, jasmonic acid, and salicylic acid. JWB-induced bud outgrowth was accompanied by downregulation of ABA synthesis within lateral buds. ABA application rescued the bushy appearances of transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing SJP1 and SJP2 in Col-0 and ZjBRC1 in the brc1-2 mutant. Furthermore, the expression of ZjBRC1 and ABA-related genes ZjHB40 and ZjNCED3 was negatively correlated with lateral main bud outgrowth in decapitated healthy jujube. Molecular evidence showed that ZjBRC1 interacted with ZjBRC2 via its N-terminus to activate ZjHB40 and ZjNCED3 expression and ABA accumulation in transgenic jujube calli. In addition, ZjBRC1 widely regulated differentially expressed genes related to ABA homeostasis and ABA signalling, especially by binding to and suppressing ABA receptors. Therefore, these results suggest that JWB phytoplasmas hijack the ZjBRC1-mediated ABA pathways to stimulate lateral bud outgrowth and expansion, providing a strategy to engineer plants resistant to JWB phytoplasma disease and regulate woody plant architecture to promote crop yield and quality.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31971687 and 32002007), the Anhui Province Key Research and Development Program (202004a06020008), the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (2008085QC127), and the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Provincial Department of Education (KJ2019A0186).

Author contributions

J.S., Q.S., and F.M. planned and designed the research; S.Z., F.M., M.C., N.Z., M.D., and J.Z. performed the experiments; Y.Y., Y.L., C.M., X.Z., C.G., X.H., Z.Z., W.C., and T.L. conducted the transformation; J.S., Q.S., and F.M. analysed the data; F.M. wrote the manuscript; and J.S. and Q.S. revised the manuscript.

Data availability

All relevant data generated or analyzed are included in the manuscript and the supporting materials.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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