1. Academic Validation
  2. A screening of inhibitors targeting the receptor kinase FERONIA reveals small molecules that enhance plant root immunity

A screening of inhibitors targeting the receptor kinase FERONIA reveals small molecules that enhance plant root immunity

  • Plant Biotechnol J. 2022 Sep 19. doi: 10.1111/pbi.13925.
Hong-Bin Liu  # 1 Xiaoxu Li  # 2 Jun Cai 1 Ling-Li Jiang 1 Xin Zhang 3 Dousheng Wu 1 Lifeng Wang 4 Aiguo Yang 5 Cun Guo 5 Jia Chen 1 Wenxuan Pu 2 Feng Yu 1 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Biology, Hunan University, Changsha, China.
  • 2 Technology Center, China Tobacco Hunan Industrial Co., Ltd., Changsha, China.
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, China.
  • 4 State key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Hunan Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute, Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changsha, China.
  • 5 Key Laboratory for Tobacco Gene Resources, Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, China.
  • 6 Yuelushan Laboratory, Changsha, China.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Receptor-like kinases (RLKs) constitute the largest receptor family involved in the regulation of plant immunity and growth, but small-molecule inhibitors that target RLKs to improve agronomic traits remain unexplored. The RLK member FERONIA (FER) negatively regulates plant resistance to certain soil-borne diseases that are difficult to control and cause huge losses in crop yields and economy. Here, we identified 33 highly effective FER kinase inhibitors from 1494 small molecules by monitoring FER autophosphorylation in vitro. Four representative inhibitors (reversine, cenisertib, staurosporine and lavendustin A) inhibited the kinase activity of FER and its homologues in several crops by targeting the conserved ATP pocket in the kinase structure. FER contributes to the physiological impact of representative inhibitors in Plants. The treatment of roots with reversine, staurosporine and lavendustin A enhanced innate immunity in plant roots and thus alleviated soil-borne diseases in tobacco, tomato and rice without growth penalties. Consistently, RNA sequencing assays showed that lavendustin A and reversine exert profound impacts on immunity-related gene expression. Our results will set a new milestone in the development of the plant RLK kinase regulation theory and provide a novel strategy for the prevention and control of plant soil-borne diseases without growth penalties.

Keywords

inhibitors; plant resistance; receptor kinase FERONIA; root immunity; soil-borne diseases.

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