A Root-Knot Nematode Secretory Peptide Functions as a Ligand for a Plant Transcription Factor

Parasitism genes expressed in the esophageal gland cells of root-knot nematodes encode proteins that are secreted into host root cells to transform the recipient cells into enlarged multinucleate feeding cells called giant-cells. Expression of a root-knot nematode parasitism gene which encodes a nov...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Guozhong Huang, Ruihua Dong, Rex Allen, Eric L. Davis, Thomas J. Baum, Richard S. Hussey
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The American Phytopathological Society 2006-05-01
Series:Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
Subjects:
Online Access:https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/MPMI-19-0463
Description
Summary:Parasitism genes expressed in the esophageal gland cells of root-knot nematodes encode proteins that are secreted into host root cells to transform the recipient cells into enlarged multinucleate feeding cells called giant-cells. Expression of a root-knot nematode parasitism gene which encodes a novel 13-amino-acid secretory peptide in plant tissues stimulated root growth. Two SCARECROW-like transcription factors of the GRAS protein family were identified as the putative targets for this bioactive nematode peptide in yeast two-hybrid analyses and confirmed by in vitro and in vivo coimmunoprecipitations. This discovery is the first demonstration of a direct interaction of a nematode-secreted parasitism peptide with a plant-regulatory protein, which may represent an early signaling event in the root-knot nematode-host interaction.
ISSN:0894-0282
1943-7706