Back

A type II secreted subtilase from commensal rhizobacteria disarms the immune elicitor peptide flg22

Eastman, S.; Jiang, T.; Ficco, K.; Liao, C.; Jones, B.; Wen, S.; Olivas Biddle, Y.; Eyceoz, A.; Yatsishin, I.; Naumann, T. A.; Conway, J. M.

2024-05-07 microbiology
10.1101/2024.05.07.592856 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Plant roots grow in association with a community of microorganisms collectively known as the rhizosphere microbiome. Immune activation in response to elicitors like the flagellin-derived epitope flg22 restricts bacteria on plant roots but also inhibits plant growth. Some commensal root-associated bacteria are capable of suppressing the plant immune response to elicitors. In this study, we investigated the ability of 165 root-associated bacteria to suppress flg22-induced immune activation and growth restriction. We demonstrate that a type II secreted subtilase, which we term Immunosuppressive Subtilase A (IssA), from Dyella japonica strain MF79 cleaves the immune eliciting peptide flg22 and contributes to immune suppression. IssA homologs are found in other plant-associated commensals, with particularly high conservation in the order Xanthomonadales. This represents a novel mechanism by which commensal microbes modulate flg22-induced immunity in the rhizosphere microbiome.

Matching journals

The top 2 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.