Increasing the resilience of plant immunity to a warming climate

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 607; no. 7918; pp. 339 - 344
• Main Authors: Kim, Jong Hum, Castroverde, Christian Danve M, Huang, Shuai, Li, Chao, Hilleary, Richard, Seroka, Adam, Sohrabi, Reza, Medina-Yerena, Diana, Huot, Bethany, Wang, Jie, Nomura, Kinya, Marr, Sharon K, Wildermuth, Mary C, Chen, Tao, MacMicking, John D, He, Sheng Yang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 14.07.2022; Nature Publishing Group UK
• Subjects: Acclimatization; Arabidopsis - growth & development; Arabidopsis - immunology; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism; Biosynthesis; Calmodulin-Binding Proteins - genetics; Climate change; Climatic extremes; Environment; Epidemics; Extreme weather; Flowering; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Global warming; Global Warming - statistics & numerical data; Heat; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Immune system; Immunity; Infections; Infectious diseases; Kinases; Pathogens; Phytochrome B; Plant diseases; Plant Diseases - genetics; Plant growth; Plant immunity; Plant Immunity - genetics; Proteins; RNA polymerase; Salicylic acid; Salicylic Acid - metabolism; Temperature; Temperature effects; Transcription Factors; Weather; Weather conditions
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04902-y

Extreme weather conditions associated with climate change affect many aspects of plant and animal life, including the response to infectious diseases. Production of salicylic acid (SA), a central plant defence hormone , is particularly vulnerable to suppression by short periods of hot weather above the normal plant growth temperature range via an unknown mechanism . Here we show that suppression of SA production in Arabidopsis thaliana at 28 °C is independent of PHYTOCHROME B (phyB) and EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3), which regulate thermo-responsive plant growth and development. Instead, we found that formation of GUANYLATE BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE 3 (GBPL3) defence-activated biomolecular condensates (GDACs) was reduced at the higher growth temperature. The altered GDAC formation in vivo is linked to impaired recruitment of GBPL3 and SA-associated Mediator subunits to the promoters of CBP60g and SARD1, which encode master immune transcription factors. Unlike many other SA signalling components, including the SA receptor and biosynthetic genes, optimized CBP60g expression was sufficient to broadly restore SA production, basal immunity and effector-triggered immunity at the elevated growth temperature without significant growth trade-offs. CBP60g family transcription factors are widely conserved in plants . These results have implications for safeguarding the plant immune system as well as understanding the concept of the plant-pathogen-environment disease triangle and the emergence of new disease epidemics in a warming climate.