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Molecular Insights into Plant-Biotic Interactions and Crop Yield
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Molecular Insights into Plant-Biotic Interactions and Crop Yield

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2023) | Viewed by 15502

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zeng-yan Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: wheat disease resistance; soil-borne fungual diseases; resistance-associated genes; comparative transcriptome; gene functional study
Prof. Dr. Xifeng Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
Interests: virus diseases; cereal crops; control; transmission; epidemics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plants suffer from a variety of biotic (bacteria, fungi, viruses, and herbivorous insects) and abiotic (drought, extreme temperatures and mechanical damage) environmental challenges to their life activities. Therefore, plants must evolve efficient and targeted strategies to adapt to the limitations of adverse conditions for growth and crop yield.

Plants do not exist in isolation in nature. Rather, they are intimately associated with a wide range of organisms, including microbes, herbivorous insects and animals, as well as other plants that compete or cooperate with them. Biotic interactions appear to provide the main driving force for plant diversification and evolution. However, plant–biotic interactions are not static, but rather they are dynamically and continuously changing in their lifecycle, especially under fluctuating environmental factors.

Taking plant microbes or microbiota interactions as an example, it is well known that plants live in a rich environment with a myriad of pathogenic and beneficial microorganisms, and how plants harness beneficial microorganisms. At the same time, measures against pathogenic microorganisms have always attracted the attention of plant and microbial scientists.

In conclusion, the scope of plant–biotic interactions includes studies in beneficial and deleterious interactions between plants and other organisms. This also includes studies into plant–microbe interactions and the plant microbiome, in addition to plant disease resistance and plant immune systems that respond to disease-cause organisms.

This Special Issue will collect original research, reviews, and perspectives related to all aspects of plan–biotic interactions.

Dr. Zeng-yan Zhang
Prof. Dr. Xifeng Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • molecular study in plant–biotic interaction
  • disease resistance of crop plants
  • yield-related molecular study

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 10231 KiB  
Article
Metabolome and Transcriptome Profiling Reveals the Function of MdSYP121 in the Apple Response to Botryosphaeria dothidea
by Jiahu Zhang, Sen Wang, Haibo Wang, Ping He, Yuansheng Chang, Wenyan Zheng, Xiao Tang, Linguang Li, Chen Wang and Xiaowen He
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(22), 16242; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242216242 - 13 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1182
Abstract
The vesicular transport system is important for substance transport in plants. In recent years, the regulatory relationship between the vesicular transport system and plant disease resistance has received widespread attention; however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. MdSYP121 is a key protein in the [...] Read more.
The vesicular transport system is important for substance transport in plants. In recent years, the regulatory relationship between the vesicular transport system and plant disease resistance has received widespread attention; however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. MdSYP121 is a key protein in the vesicular transport system. The overexpression of MdSYP121 decreased the B. dothidea resistance of apple, while silencing MdSYP121 resulted in the opposite phenotype. A metabolome and transcriptome dataset analysis showed that MdSYP121 regulated apple disease resistance by significantly affecting sugar metabolism. HPLC results showed that the levels of many soluble sugars were significantly higher in the MdSYP121-OE calli. Furthermore, the expression levels of genes related to sugar transport were significantly higher in the MdSYP121-OE calli after B. dothidea inoculation. In addition, the relationships between the MdSYP121 expression level, the soluble sugar content, and apple resistance to B. dothidea were verified in an F1 population derived from a cross between ‘Golden Delicious’ and ‘Fuji Nagafu No. 2’. In conclusion, these results suggested that MdSYP121 negatively regulated apple resistance to B. dothidea by influencing the soluble sugar content. These technologies and methods allow us to investigate the molecular mechanism of the vesicular transport system regulating apple resistance to B. dothidea. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Insights into Plant-Biotic Interactions and Crop Yield)
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17 pages, 3786 KiB  
Article
The Cytosolic Acetoacetyl-CoA Thiolase TaAACT1 Is Required for Defense against Fusarium pseudograminearum in Wheat
by Feng Xiong, Xiuliang Zhu, Changsha Luo, Zhixiang Liu and Zengyan Zhang
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(7), 6165; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24076165 - 24 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1658
Abstract
Fusarium pseudograminearum is a major pathogen for the destructive disease Fusarium crown rot (FCR) of wheat (Triticum aestivum). The cytosolic Acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase II (AACT) is the first catalytic enzyme in the mevalonate pathway that biosynthesizes isoprenoids in plants. However, there has [...] Read more.
Fusarium pseudograminearum is a major pathogen for the destructive disease Fusarium crown rot (FCR) of wheat (Triticum aestivum). The cytosolic Acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase II (AACT) is the first catalytic enzyme in the mevalonate pathway that biosynthesizes isoprenoids in plants. However, there has been no investigation of wheat cytosolic AACT genes in defense against pathogens including Fusarium pseudograminearum. Herein, we identified a cytosolic AACT-encoding gene from wheat, named TaAACT1, and demonstrated its positively regulatory role in the wheat defense response to F. pseudograminearum. One haplotype of TaAACT1 in analyzed wheat genotypes was associated with wheat resistance to FCR. The TaAACT1 transcript level was elevated after F. pseudograminearum infection, and was higher in FCR-resistant wheat genotypes than in susceptible wheat genotypes. Functional analysis indicated that knock down of TaAACT1 impaired resistance against F. pseudograminearum and reduced the expression of downstream defense genes in wheat. TaAACT1 protein was verified to localize in the cytosol of wheat cells. TaAACT1 and its modulated defense genes were rapidly responsive to exogenous jasmonate treatment. Collectively, TaAACT1 contributes to resistance to F. pseudograminearum through upregulating the expression of defense genes in wheat. This study sheds new light on the molecular mechanisms underlying wheat defense against FCR. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Insights into Plant-Biotic Interactions and Crop Yield)
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15 pages, 3164 KiB  
Article
A Novel Wall-Associated Kinase TaWAK-5D600 Positively Participates in Defense against Sharp Eyespot and Fusarium Crown Rot in Wheat
by Haijun Qi, Xiuliang Zhu, Wenbiao Shen and Zengyan Zhang
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(5), 5060; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24055060 - 6 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2428
Abstract
Sharp eyespot and Fusarium crown rot, mainly caused by soil-borne fungi Rhizoctonia cerealis and Fusarium pseudograminearum, are destructive diseases of major cereal crops including wheat (Triticum aestivum). However, the mechanisms underlying wheat-resistant responses to the two pathogens are largely elusive. [...] Read more.
Sharp eyespot and Fusarium crown rot, mainly caused by soil-borne fungi Rhizoctonia cerealis and Fusarium pseudograminearum, are destructive diseases of major cereal crops including wheat (Triticum aestivum). However, the mechanisms underlying wheat-resistant responses to the two pathogens are largely elusive. In this study, we performed a genome-wide analysis of wall-associated kinase (WAK) family in wheat. As a result, a total of 140 TaWAK (not TaWAKL) candidate genes were identified from the wheat genome, each of which contains an N-terminal signal peptide, a galacturonan binding domain, an EGF-like domain, a calcium binding EGF domain (EGF-Ca), a transmembrane domain, and an intracellular Serine/Threonine protein kinase domain. By analyzing the RNA-sequencing data of wheat inoculated with R. cerealis and F. pseudograminearum, we found that transcript abundance of TaWAK-5D600 (TraesCS5D02G268600) on chromosome 5D was significantly upregulated, and that its upregulated transcript levels in response to both pathogens were higher compared with other TaWAK genes. Importantly, knock-down of TaWAK-5D600 transcript impaired wheat resistance against the fungal pathogens R. cerealis and F. pseudograminearum, and significantly repressed expression of defense-related genes in wheat, TaSERK1, TaMPK3, TaPR1, TaChitinase3, and TaChitinase4. Thus, this study proposes TaWAK-5D600 as a promising gene for improving wheat broad resistance to sharp eyespot and Fusarium crown rot (FCR) in wheat. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Insights into Plant-Biotic Interactions and Crop Yield)
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Review

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18 pages, 792 KiB  
Review
Plant Growth Promotion Using Bacillus cereus
by Iryna Kulkova, Jakub Dobrzyński, Paweł Kowalczyk, Grzegorz Bełżecki and Karol Kramkowski
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(11), 9759; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24119759 - 5 Jun 2023
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 4731
Abstract
Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) appear to be a sensible competitor to conventional fertilization, including mineral fertilizers and chemical plant protection products. Undoubtedly, one of the most interesting bacteria exhibiting plant-stimulating traits is, more widely known as a pathogen, Bacillus cereus. To date, [...] Read more.
Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) appear to be a sensible competitor to conventional fertilization, including mineral fertilizers and chemical plant protection products. Undoubtedly, one of the most interesting bacteria exhibiting plant-stimulating traits is, more widely known as a pathogen, Bacillus cereus. To date, several environmentally safe strains of B. cereus have been isolated and described, including B. cereus WSE01, MEN8, YL6, SA1, ALT1, ERBP, GGBSTD1, AK1, AR156, C1L, and T4S. These strains have been studied under growth chamber, greenhouse, and field conditions and have shown many significant traits, including indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase production or phosphate solubilization, which allows direct plant growth promotion. It includes an increase in biometrics traits, chemical element content (e.g., N, P, and K), and biologically active substances content or activity, e.g., antioxidant enzymes and total soluble sugar. Hence, B. cereus has supported the growth of plant species such as soybean, maize, rice, and wheat. Importantly, some B. cereus strains can also promote plant growth under abiotic stresses, including drought, salinity, and heavy metal pollution. In addition, B. cereus strains produced extracellular enzymes and antibiotic lipopeptides or triggered induced systemic resistance, which allows indirect stimulation of plant growth. As far as biocontrol is concerned, these PGPB can suppress the development of agriculturally important phytopathogens, including bacterial phytopathogens (e.g., Pseudomonas syringae, Pectobacterium carotovorum, and Ralstonia solanacearum), fungal phytopathogens (e.g., Fusarium oxysporum, Botrytis cinerea, and Rhizoctonia solani), and other phytopathogenic organisms (e.g., Meloidogyne incognita (Nematoda) and Plasmodiophora brassicae (Protozoa)). In conclusion, it should be noted that there are still few studies on the effectiveness of B. cereus under field conditions, particularly, there is a lack of comprehensive analyses comparing the PGP effects of B. cereus and mineral fertilizers, which should be reduced in favor of decreasing the use of mineral fertilizers. It is also worth mentioning that there are still very few studies on the impact of B. cereus on the indigenous microbiota and its persistence after application to soil. Further studies would help to understand the interactions between B. cereus and indigenous microbiota, subsequently contributing to increasing its effectiveness in promoting plant growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Insights into Plant-Biotic Interactions and Crop Yield)
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23 pages, 2775 KiB  
Review
The Role of Plant Transcription Factors in the Fight against Plant Viruses
by Kotapati Kasi Viswanath, Song-Yi Kuo, Chin-Wei Tu, Yau-Heiu Hsu, Ying-Wen Huang and Chung-Chi Hu
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(9), 8433; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24098433 - 8 May 2023
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 4660
Abstract
Plants are vulnerable to the challenges of unstable environments and pathogen infections due to their immobility. Among various stress conditions, viral infection is a major threat that causes significant crop loss. In response to viral infection, plants undergo complex molecular and physiological changes, [...] Read more.
Plants are vulnerable to the challenges of unstable environments and pathogen infections due to their immobility. Among various stress conditions, viral infection is a major threat that causes significant crop loss. In response to viral infection, plants undergo complex molecular and physiological changes, which trigger defense and morphogenic pathways. Transcription factors (TFs), and their interactions with cofactors and cis-regulatory genomic elements, are essential for plant defense mechanisms. The transcriptional regulation by TFs is crucial in establishing plant defense and associated activities during viral infections. Therefore, identifying and characterizing the critical genes involved in the responses of plants against virus stress is essential for the development of transgenic plants that exhibit enhanced tolerance or resistance. This article reviews the current understanding of the transcriptional control of plant defenses, with a special focus on NAC, MYB, WRKY, bZIP, and AP2/ERF TFs. The review provides an update on the latest advances in understanding how plant TFs regulate defense genes expression during viral infection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Insights into Plant-Biotic Interactions and Crop Yield)
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