Project description:Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) are a leading cause of food-borne illness. Fruit and vegetables are recognised as an important source of the pathogen and can account for ~ 25 % of food-borne VTEC outbreaks, globally. The ability of VTEC to colonise leaves and roots of leafy vegetables, spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa), was compared. The highest levels of colonisation occurred in the roots and rhizosphere, whereas colonisation of the leaves was lower and significantly different between the species. Colonisation of the leaves of prickly lettuce (L. serriola), a wild relative of domesticated lettuce, was especially poor. Differential VTEC gene expression in spinach extracts was markedly different for three tissue types, with little overlap. Comparison of expression in the same tissue type, cell wall polysaccharides, for lettuce and spinach also showed substantial differences, again with virtually no overlap. The transcriptional response was largely dependent on temperatures that are relevant to plant growth, not warm-blooded animals. The data show that VTEC adaptation to plant hosts and subsequent colonisation potential is underpinned by wholescale changes in gene expression that are specific to both plant tissue type and to the species.
Project description:Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) are a leading cause of food-borne illness. Fruit and vegetables are recognised as an important source of the pathogen and can account for ~ 25 % of food-borne VTEC outbreaks, globally. The ability of VTEC to colonise leaves and roots of leafy vegetables, spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa), was compared. The highest levels of colonisation occurred in the roots and rhizosphere, whereas colonisation of the leaves was lower and significantly different between the species. Colonisation of the leaves of prickly lettuce (L. serriola), a wild relative of domesticated lettuce, was especially poor. Differential VTEC gene expression in spinach extracts was markedly different for three tissue types, with little overlap. Comparison of expression in the same tissue type, cell wall polysaccharides, for lettuce and spinach also showed substantial differences, again with virtually no overlap. The transcriptional response was largely dependent on temperatures that are relevant to plant growth, not warm-blooded animals. The data show that VTEC adaptation to plant hosts and subsequent colonisation potential is underpinned by wholescale changes in gene expression that are specific to both plant tissue type and to the species.
Project description:Various microbes isolated from healthy plants are detrimental under laboratory conditions, indicating the existence of molecular mechanisms preventing disease in nature. Here, we demonstrated that application of sodium chloride (NaCl) in natural and gnotobiotic soil systems is needed to induce plant disease caused by an otherwise non-pathogenic root-derived Pseudomonas brassicacearum isolate (R401). Disease caused by combinatorial treatment of NaCl and R401 triggered extensive, root-specific transcriptional reprogramming that did not involve down-regulation of host innate immune genes, nor dampening of ROS-mediated immunity. Instead, we identified and structurally characterized the R401 lipopeptide brassicapeptin A as necessary and sufficient to promote disease on salt-treated plants. Brassicapeptin A production transitions R401 from being beneficial to being detrimental on salt-treated plants by disturbing host ion homeostasis, thereby bolstering bacterial infection and susceptibility to osmolytes. We conclude that the interaction between a global change stressor and a bacterial exometabolite drives disease emergence in the plant microbiome.
Project description:Flavonoids are stress-inducible metabolites important for plant-microbe interactions. In contrast to their well-known function in initiating rhizobia nodulation in legumes, it is unclear whether and how flavonoids may contribute to plant stress resistance through affecting non-nodulating bacteria in the root microbiome. Here we show how flavonoids preferentially attracts Aeromonadaceae in Arabidopsis thaliana root microbiome and how flavonoid-dependent recruitment of an Aeromona spp. results in enhanced plant Na_H1 resistance.
Project description:Flavonoids are stress-inducible metabolites important for plant-microbe interactions. In contrast to their well-known function in initiating rhizobia nodulation in legumes, it is unclear whether and how flavonoids may contribute to plant stress resistance through affecting non-nodulating bacteria in the root microbiome. Here we show how flavonoids preferentially attracts Aeromonadaceae in Arabidopsis thaliana root microbiome and how flavonoid-dependent recruitment of an Aeromona spp. results in enhanced plant drought resistance.