Biology subjects

Khaoula Belhaj

Publications and source records attributed to Khaoula Belhaj.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2015

Arabidopsis late blight: Infection of a nonhost plant by Albugo laibachii enables full colonization by Phytophthora infestans

The oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans causes potato late blight, and as a potato and tomato specialist pathogen, is seemingly poorly adapted to infect plants outside the Solanaceae. Here, we report the unexpected finding that P. infestans can infect Arabidopsis thaliana when another oomycete pathogen, Albugo laibachii, has colonized the host plant. The behaviour and speed of P. infestans infection in Arabidopsis pre-infected with A. laibachii resemble P. infestans infection of susceptible potato plants. Transcriptional profiling of P. infestans genes during infection revealed a significant overlap in the sets of secreted-protein genes that are induced in P. infestans upon colonisation of potato and susceptible Arabidopsis, suggesting major similarities in P. infestans gene expression dynamics on the two plant species. Furthermore, we found haustoria of A. laibachii and P. infestans within the same Arabidopsis cells. This Arabidopsis - A. laibachii - P. infestans tripartite interaction opens up various possibilities to dissect the molecular mechanisms of P. infestans infection and the processes occurring in co-infected Arabidopsis cells.

Plant Biology↗

bioRxiv2015

The NLR helper protein NRC3 but not NRC1 is required for Pto-mediated cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana

Intracellular immune receptors of the nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR or NLR) proteins often function in pairs, with \"helper\" proteins required for the activity of \"sensors\" that mediate pathogen recognition. The NLR helper NRC1 (NB-LRR protein required for HR-associated cell death 1) has been described as a signalling hub required for the cell death mediated by both cell surface and intracellular immune receptors in the model plant Nicotiana benthamiana. However, this work predates the availability of the N. benthamiana genome and whether NRC1 is indeed required for the reported phenotypes has not been confirmed. Here, we investigated the NRC family of solanaceous plants using a combination of genome annotation, phylogenetics, gene silencing and genetic complementation experiments. We discovered that a paralog of NRC1, we termed NRC3, is required for the hypersensitive cell death triggered by the disease resistance protein Pto but not Rx and Mi-1.2. NRC3 may also contribute to the hypersensitive cell death triggered by the receptor-like protein Cf-4. Our results highlight the importance of applying genetic complementation to validate gene function in RNA silencing experiments.

Plant Biology↗