Graduate Student University of Missouri Columbia, Missouri
Body of Abstract: To feed the world’s growing population, crop production will need to double within the next 30 years. Each year, a substantial percentage of crops are lost to pathogen infection resulting in decreased crop yield. Understanding the molecular mechanisms contributing to plant immunity can help to inspire novel approaches to engineering more resistant crop species.
The plasma membrane (PM) is a crucial contact point between a plant cell and its environment. For effective immune responses, plant proteins at the PM perform critical functions to facilitate pathogen perception as well as initiation, amplification, and attenuation of defense responses. One strategy that plant cells utilize to modulate the PM proteome is by vesicular trafficking of cargo proteins to or from the PM via secretion and endocytosis. Vesicular trafficking has emerged as a key regulator of plant defense because mutations in vesicular trafficking genes result in altered immune responses. In plants, the best studied vesicle type are clathrin-coated vesicles (CCV) that form at both the PM and the trans-Golgi Network (TGN). However, our understanding of how CCVs help control plant immunity is limited.
The goal of this project is to delineate the roles of CCV components in regulating the PM composition for proper plant immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana. Our lab has published that AtEPSIN1, a CCV adaptor that recruits clathrin for vesicle formation at the TGN, regulates the PM abundance of the immune receptor FLAGELLIN SENSING2 (AtFLS2) for effective defense responses. In epsin1 mutants, AtFLS2 accumulates to reduced levels in the PM correlating with impaired immune signaling. Here, we expanded the role of AtEPSIN1 by investigating its genetic interaction with the CCV component CLATHRIN HEAVY CHAIN (AtCHC). Here, we report of the isolation of chc epsin1 double mutants and their genetic interaction in preformed and induced plant immune responses to a bacterial Pseudomonas pathogen.