DOI: 10.1126/science.1126088 ISSN:
A Plant miRNA Contributes to Antibacterial Resistance by Repressing Auxin Signaling
Lionel Navarro, Patrice Dunoyer, Florence Jay, Benedict Arnold, Nihal Dharmasiri, Mark Estelle, Olivier Voinnet, Jonathan D. G. Jones- Multidisciplinary
Plants and animals activate defenses after perceiving pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) such as bacterial flagellin. In Arabidopsis , perception of flagellin increases resistance to the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae , although the molecular mechanisms involved remain elusive. Here, we show that a flagellin-derived peptide induces a plant microRNA (miRNA) that negatively regulates messenger RNAs for the F-box auxin receptors TIR1, AFB2, and AFB3. Repression of auxin signaling restricts P. syringae growth, implicating auxin in disease susceptibility and miRNA-mediated suppression of auxin signaling in resistance.