IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v621y2023i7979d10.1038_s41586-023-06531-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bacterial pathogens deliver water- and solute-permeable channels to plant cells

Author

Listed:
  • Kinya Nomura

    (Duke University
    Duke University)

  • Felipe Andreazza

    (Duke University)

  • Jie Cheng

    (Duke University School of Medicine)

  • Ke Dong

    (Duke University)

  • Pei Zhou

    (Duke University School of Medicine)

  • Sheng Yang He

    (Duke University
    Duke University)

Abstract

Many animal- and plant-pathogenic bacteria use a type III secretion system to deliver effector proteins into host cells1,2. Elucidation of how these effector proteins function in host cells is critical for understanding infectious diseases in animals and plants3–5. The widely conserved AvrE-family effectors, including DspE in Erwinia amylovora and AvrE in Pseudomonas syringae, have a central role in the pathogenesis of diverse phytopathogenic bacteria6. These conserved effectors are involved in the induction of ‘water soaking’ and host cell death that are conducive to bacterial multiplication in infected tissues. However, the exact biochemical functions of AvrE-family effectors have been recalcitrant to mechanistic understanding for three decades. Here we show that AvrE-family effectors fold into a β-barrel structure that resembles bacterial porins. Expression of AvrE and DspE in Xenopus oocytes results in inward and outward currents, permeability to water and osmolarity-dependent oocyte swelling and bursting. Liposome reconstitution confirmed that the DspE channel alone is sufficient to allow the passage of small molecules such as fluorescein dye. Targeted screening of chemical blockers based on the predicted pore size (15–20 Å) of the DspE channel identified polyamidoamine dendrimers as inhibitors of the DspE/AvrE channels. Notably, polyamidoamines broadly inhibit AvrE and DspE virulence activities in Xenopus oocytes and during E. amylovora and P. syringae infections. Thus, we have unravelled the biochemical function of a centrally important family of bacterial effectors with broad conceptual and practical implications in the study of bacterial pathogenesis.

Suggested Citation

  • Kinya Nomura & Felipe Andreazza & Jie Cheng & Ke Dong & Pei Zhou & Sheng Yang He, 2023. "Bacterial pathogens deliver water- and solute-permeable channels to plant cells," Nature, Nature, vol. 621(7979), pages 586-591, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:621:y:2023:i:7979:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06531-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06531-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06531-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-023-06531-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Conner J. Rogan & Yin-Yuin Pang & Sophie D. Mathews & Sydney E. Turner & Alexandra J. Weisberg & Silke Lehmann & Doris Rentsch & Jeffrey C. Anderson, 2024. "Transporter-mediated depletion of extracellular proline directly contributes to plant pattern-triggered immunity against a bacterial pathogen," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:621:y:2023:i:7979:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06531-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.