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AtMC1 negatively regulates immunity through modulating pre-mRNA splicing and miRNA accumulation, involving LSM4
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  • Shune Wang ,
  • Chunhao Jiang,
  • Chan He,
  • Danyu Shen,
  • Haumeng Zhang,
  • Ying Zheng,
  • Liyu Zheng,
  • Hongwei Zhao,
  • Dongdong Niu
Shune Wang
Nanjing Agricultural University College of Plant Protection

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Chunhao Jiang
Nanjing Agricultural University College of Plant Protection
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Chan He
Nanjing Agricultural University College of Plant Protection
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Danyu Shen
Nanjing Agricultural University
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Haumeng Zhang
Nanjing Agricultural University College of Plant Protection
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Ying Zheng
Nanjing Agricultural University College of Plant Protection
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Liyu Zheng
Nanjing Agricultural University College of Plant Protection
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Hongwei Zhao
Nanjing Agricultural University College of Plant Protection
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Dongdong Niu
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Abstract

Alternative splicing (AS) of pre-mRNAs is an important gene regulatory mechanism shaping the transcriptome. AtMC1 is an Arabidopsis thaliana type I metacaspase that positively regulates hypersensitive response (HR). Here, we found that AtMC1 is a negative regulator of plant immunity to the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000 and is physically associated with Sm-like4 (LSM4), which is involved in pre-mRNA splicing. AtMC1 and LSM4 protein levels both increased with their co-expression as compared with their separate expression in vivo. Like AtMC1, LSM4 negatively regulates plant immunity to Pst DC3000 infection. By RNA-seq, AtMC1 was shown to modulate the splicing of many pre-mRNAs including 4CL3, which is a negative regulator of plant immunity. Moreover, atmc1 mutant plants accumulated microRNAs (miRNAs) such as miR398b, miR399a, miR165a and miR159a at a low level than wild-type Arabidopsis Col-0 plants. Furthermore, AtMC1 affected pri-miRNA processing. RNA immunoprecipitation revealed that AtMC1 interacted with these pri-miRNAs in vivo, suggesting that AtMC1 might suppress their processing by directly binding to them. In addition, we found that MC1-mediated plant immunity is conserved in tomato. Thus, AtMC1 plays a regulatory role in both miRNA expression and pre-mRNA splicing, which might contribute to AtMC1-mediated plant immunity.