Small proteins modulate ion-channel-like ACD6 to regulate immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana

Junbin Chen; Lei Li; Jong Hum Kim; Benjamin Neuhäuser; Mingyu Wang; Michael Thelen; Richard Hilleary; Yuan Chi; Luyang Wei; Kavita Venkataramani; Moises Exposito-Alonso; Chang Liu; Jakob Keck; A Cristina Barragan; Rebecca Schwab; Ulrich Lutz; Zhen-Ming Pei; Sheng-Yang He; Uwe Ludewig; Detlef Weigel; Wangsheng Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2023.10.030

Small proteins modulate ion-channel-like ACD6 to regulate immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana

Mol Cell. 2023 Dec 7;83(23):4386-4397.e9. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2023.10.030. Epub 2023 Nov 22.

Authors

Junbin Chen¹, Lei Li², Jong Hum Kim³, Benjamin Neuhäuser⁴, Mingyu Wang¹, Michael Thelen², Richard Hilleary⁵, Yuan Chi⁵, Luyang Wei¹, Kavita Venkataramani², Moises Exposito-Alonso², Chang Liu⁶, Jakob Keck², A Cristina Barragan², Rebecca Schwab², Ulrich Lutz², Zhen-Ming Pei⁵, Sheng-Yang He³, Uwe Ludewig⁴, Detlef Weigel⁷, Wangsheng Zhu⁸

Affiliations

¹ China Key Laboratory of Pest Monitoring and Green Management, MOA, State Key Laboratory of Maize Bio-breeding, and College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
² Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
³ Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
⁴ Nutritional Crop Physiology, University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany.
⁵ Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
⁶ Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP), University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; Institute of Biology, University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany.
⁷ Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. Electronic address: weigel@weigelworld.org.
⁸ China Key Laboratory of Pest Monitoring and Green Management, MOA, State Key Laboratory of Maize Bio-breeding, and College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China; Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany. Electronic address: wangshengzhu@cau.edu.cn.

PMID: 37995686
DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2023.10.030

Abstract

The multi-pass transmembrane protein ACCELERATED CELL DEATH 6 (ACD6) is an immune regulator in Arabidopsis thaliana with an unclear biochemical mode of action. We have identified two loci, MODULATOR OF HYPERACTIVE ACD6 1 (MHA1) and its paralog MHA1-LIKE (MHA1L), that code for ∼7 kDa proteins, which differentially interact with specific ACD6 variants. MHA1L enhances the accumulation of an ACD6 complex, thereby increasing the activity of the ACD6 standard allele for regulating plant growth and defenses. The intracellular ankyrin repeats of ACD6 are structurally similar to those found in mammalian ion channels. Several lines of evidence link increased ACD6 activity to enhanced calcium influx, with MHA1L as a direct regulator of ACD6, indicating that peptide-regulated ion channels are not restricted to animals.

Keywords: ankyrin repeats protein; autoimmnity; ligand regualted ion channel; pattern-triggered immunity.

MeSH terms

Ankyrins / metabolism
Arabidopsis Proteins* / genetics
Arabidopsis Proteins* / metabolism
Arabidopsis* / genetics
Cell Death
Ion Channels / genetics
Ion Channels / metabolism
Plant Immunity / genetics

Substances

Ankyrins
Arabidopsis Proteins
Ion Channels
ACD6 protein, Arabidopsis