Defective cuticle‐derived signals enhance extracellular
ATP
response and plant immunity
Mengran Yang, Jae hyo Song, Ha N. Duong, Li Su, Sung‐Hwan Cho, Daewon Kim, Dong Xu, Gary Stacey Summary
Extracellular ATP (eATP) acts as a damage‐associated molecular pattern in both animals and plants. In plants, eATP is recognized by the purinergic receptors P2K1 and P2K2, which mediate responses to various environmental stresses.
From a
p2k1
suppressor screen in
Arabidopsis thaliana
, we identified two allelic mutants of the cutin biosynthesis gene,
BODYGUARD
(
BDG
). The
BDG
mutations specifically suppress
p2k1
and
p2k1p2k2
mutant defects in response to eATP. The suppression of
p2k1
by
bdg
modifies plant defense against the necrotrophic fungal pathogen,
Botrytis cinerea
.
In addition, the results show that the defective cuticle in
bdg
mutants generates cutin breakdown products, such as cutin monomers, which serve as signaling molecules to activate eATP response and plant immunity through an alternative eATP signaling pathway.
Our data provide new insights into the signaling role of cutin and reveal the first link between the cuticle and eATP signaling.