Bacterial Infection Disrupts Clock Gene Expression to Attenuate Immune Responses

DE LEONE, MARÍA JOSÉ; HERNANDO, C. ESTEBAN; ROMANOWSKI, ANDRÉS; CARENO, DANIEL A.; SOVERNA, ANA FAIGÓN; SUN, HEQUAN; BOLOGNA, NICOLÁS G.; VÁZQUEZ, MARTÍN; SCHNEEBERGER, KORBINIAN; YANOVSKY, MARCELO J.

CURRENT BIOLOGY

CELL PRESS

Lugar: United States; Año: 2020 vol. 30 p. 1740 - 1747

0960-9822

The circadian clock modulates immune responsesin plants and animals; however, it is unclear howhost-pathogen interactions affect the clock. Herewe analyzed clock function in Arabidopsis thalianamutants with defective immune responses andfound that enhanced disease susceptibility 4 (eds4)displays alterations in several circadian rhythms.Mapping by sequencing revealed that EDS4 encodesthe ortholog of NUCLEOPORIN 205, a corecomponent of the inner ring of the nuclear pore complex(NPC). Consistent with the idea that the NPCspecifically modulates clock function, we found astrong enrichment in core clock genes, as well asan increased nuclear to total mRNA accumulation,among genes that were differentially expressed ineds4 mutants. Interestingly, infection with Pseudomonassyringae in wild-type (WT) plants downregulatedthe expression of several morning core clockgenes as early as 1 h post-infection, including allmembers of the NIGHT LIGHT-INDUCIBLE ANDCLOCK-REGULATED (LNK) gene family, and thiseffect was attenuated in eds4. Furthermore, lnkmutants were more susceptible than the WT toP. syringae infection. These results indicate thatbacterial infection, acting in part through the NPC,alters core clock gene expression and/or mRNAaccumulation in a way that favors bacterial growthand disease susceptibility