Identification of Candidate Ergosterol-Responsive Proteins Associated with the Plasma Membrane of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Abstract

The impact of fungal diseases on crop production negatively reflects on sustainable food production and overall economic health. Ergosterol is the major sterol component in fungal membranes and regarded as a general elicitor or microbe-associated molecular pattern (MAMP) molecule. Although plant responses to ergosterol have been reported, the perception mechanism is still unknown. Here, Arabidopsis thaliana protein fractions were used to identify those differentially regulated following ergosterol treatment; additionally, they were subjected to affinity-based chromatography enrichment strategies to capture and categorize ergosterol-interacting candidate proteins using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Mature plants were treated with 250 nM ergosterol over a 24 h period, and plasma membrane-associated fractions were isolated. In addition, ergosterol was immobilized on two different affinity-based systems to capture interacting proteins/complexes. This resulted in the identification of defense-related proteins such as chitin elicitor receptor kinase (CERK), non-race specific disease resistance/harpin-induced (NDR1/HIN1)-like protein, Ras-related proteins, aquaporins, remorin protein, leucine-rich repeat (LRR)- receptor like kinases (RLKs), G-type lectin S-receptor-like serine/threonine-protein kinase (GsSRK), and glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored protein. Furthermore, the results elucidated unknown signaling responses to this MAMP, including endocytosis, and other similarities to those previously reported for bacterial flagellin, lipopolysaccharides, and fungal chitin.

• Authors: Thembisile G Khoza, Ian A Dubery, Lizelle A Piater
• Journal: International journal of molecular sciences (Int J Mol Sci) Vol. 20 Issue 6 (Mar 14 2019) ISSN: 1422-0067 [Electronic] Switzerland
• PMID: 30875866 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Arabidopsis Proteins
• Protein Kinases
• Ergosterol

Topics

• Arabidopsis (drug effects, metabolism)
• Arabidopsis Proteins (metabolism)
• Cell Membrane (drug effects, metabolism)
• Chromatography, Affinity
• Chromatography, Liquid
• Ergosterol (pharmacology)
• Gene Expression Regulation, Plant (drug effects)
• Protein Kinases (metabolism)
• Signal Transduction (drug effects)
• Tandem Mass Spectrometry