A C2H2-type zinc finger protein TaZFP8-5B negatively regulates disease resistance

https://bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12870-024-05843-6

BMC Plant Biology,volume24, Article number:1116(2024)

Lin Huang,Ruijie Xie,Yanling Hu,Lilin Du,Fang Wang,Xueer Zhao,Yanyan Huang,Xuejiao Chen,Ming Hao,Qiang Xu,Lihua Feng,Bihua Wu,Zhenzhen Wei,Lianquan Zhang&Dengcai Liu

Abstart

Background

Zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) are important regulators in abiotic and biotic stress tolerance in plants. However, the role of the ZFPs in wheat responding to pathogen infection is poorly understood.

Results

In this study, we foundTaZFP8-5Bwas down-regulated byPuccinia striiformisf. sp.tritici(Pst) infection. TaZFP8-5B possesses a single C2H2-type zinc finger domain with a plant-specific QALGGH motif, and an EAR motif (LxLxL) at the C-terminus. The EAR motif represses the trans-activation ability of TaZFP8-5B. Knocking down the expression ofTaZFP8by virus-induced gene silencing increased wheat resistance toPst, whereasTaZFP8-5B-overexpressing reduced wheat resistance to stripe rust and rice resistance toMagnaporthe oryzae, suggesting thatTaZFP8-5Bplays a negative role in the modulation of plant immunity. Using bimolecular fluorescence complementation, split-luciferase, and yeast two-hybrid assays, we showed that TaZFP8-5B interacted with a wheat calmodulin-like protein TaCML21. Knock-down ofTaCML21reduced wheat resistance toPst.

Conclusions

This study characterized the function of TaZFP8-5B and its interacting protein TaCML21. Our findings provide a new perspective on a regulatory module made up of TaCML21-TaZFP8-5B in plant immunity.