Poster Presentation International Plant Molecular Biology Conference 2024

Tomato stress-associated proteins implicated in resistance against tomato yellow leaf curl Thailand virus (#78)

Kuen-Jin Tsai 1 , Yun-Shan Tsai 1 2 , Hsin-Hung Yeh 1
  1. Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
  2. Plant Pathology and Microbiology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

We previously identified that evolutionary conserved stress-associated proteins (SAPs) are hubs in salicylic acid (SA)-mediated immunity among plants. For mechanistic and translational studies, the model tomato cultivar, Micro-Tom, and the predominant strain that caused the devastating tomato viral disease in Taiwan, tomato yellow leaf curl Thailand virus (TYLCTHV), were selected for further studies. All seven Micro-Tom encoded tomato SAP genes (SlSAPs) were examined for their response to SA and TYLCTHV infection. The gene expression of SlSAP1, SlSAP3, SlSAP9, and SlSAP11were induced upon SA application, while SlSAP1, SlSAP3, SlSAP4 and SlSAP11 were induced by TYLCTHV infection. Transient overexpression of the SlSAPs in TYLCTHV-infected plants revealed that SlSAP1, SlSAP3, and SlSAP4, had profound effects on reducing the virus accumulation. Furthermore, transgenic Micro-Tom tomato overexpressing SlSAP3(OE-SlSAP3) and SlSAP4 (OE-SlSAP4) conferred great resistance to TYLCTHV. In comparison to the wild-type, OE-SlSAP3 and OE-SlSAP4 displayed enhanced expression of SA- and jasmonic acid-mediated immune marker genes.