Journal article
Plant perception of β-aminobutyric acid is mediated by an aspartyl-tRNA synthetase
E Luna, M Van Hulten, Y Zhang, O Berkowitz, A López, P Pétriacq, MA Sellwood, B Chen, M Burrell, A Van De Meene, CMJ Pieterse, V Flors, J Ton
Nature Chemical Biology | NATURE PORTFOLIO | Published : 2014
Abstract
Specific chemicals can prime the plant immune system for augmented defense. β-aminobutyric acid (BABA) is a priming agent that provides broad-spectrum disease protection. However, BABA also suppresses plant growth when applied in high doses, which has hampered its application as a crop defense activator. Here we describe a mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana that is impaired in BABA-induced disease immunity (ibi1) but is hypersensitive to BABA-induced growth repression. IBI1 encodes an aspartyl-tRNA synthetase. Enantiomer-specific binding of the R enantiomer of BABA to IBI1 primed the protein for noncanonical defense signaling in the cytoplasm after pathogen attack. This priming was associated wi..
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Awarded by European Commission
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank S. van Wees, N. Halford, J. Lucas, J. Pickett, I. Feussner, X. Zhang, W Kegge, D. Acoska, M. Roberts, V. Pastor, J. Gamir and B. Mauch-Mani for fruitful discussions, practical assistance and/or helpful feedback. Arabidopsis NahG B15 and Ler rpp5 seeds were kindly provided by J. Ryals (Research Triangle Park, USA) and J. Parker (Max Planck Institute, Cologne), respectively. The research was supported by a VENI grant to J.T. (no. 863.04.019) from the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO), a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Institute Career Path Fellowship (no. BB/E023959/1) to J.T., a consolidator grant from the European Research Council (no. 309944-Prime-A-Plant) to LT., a Research Leadership Award from the Leverhulme Trust (no. RL-2012-042) to LT., European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013; no265865-PURE) to J.T., a grant from the Felix Thornley Cobbold Agricultural Trust to J.T. and E.L. and a VICI grant (no. 865.04.002) to C.M.J.P. from NWO.