Parasite dodder enables transfer of bidirectional systemic nitrogen signals between host plants. Issue 4 (17th November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Jingxiong; Xu, Yuxing; Xie, Jing; Zhuang, Huifu; Liu, Hui; Shen, Guojing; Wu, Jianqiang
• Is Part Of: Plant physiology. Volume 185:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 1395
• Page End: 1410
• Publication Date: 2020-11-17
• Subjects: Plant physiology -- Periodicals; Botany -- Periodicals; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 571.2
• DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiaa004
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0032-0889

Abstract

Abstract: Dodder ( Cuscuta spp., Convolvulaceae) is a genus of parasitic plants with worldwide distribution. Dodders are able to simultaneously parasitize two or more adjacent hosts, forming dodder-connected plant clusters. Nitrogen (N) deficiency is a common challenge to plants. To date, it has been unclear whether dodder transfers N-systemic signals between hosts grown in N-heterogeneous soil. Transcriptome and methylome analyses were carried out to investigate whether dodder ( Cuscuta campestris ) transfers N-systemic signals between N-replete and N-depleted cucumber ( Cucumis sativus ) hosts, and it was found that N-systemic signals from the N-deficient cucumber plants were rapidly translocated through C. campestris to the N-replete cucumber plants. Unexpectedly, certain systemic signals were also transferred from the N-replete to N-depleted cucumber hosts. We demonstrate that these systemic signals are able to regulate large transcriptome and DNA methylome changes in the recipient hosts. Importantly, N stress also induced many long-distance mobile mRNA transfers between C. campestris and hosts, and the bilateral N-systemic signaling between N-replete and N-depleted hosts had a strong impact on the inter-plant mobile mRNAs. Our 15 N labeling experiment indicated that under N-heterogeneous conditions, N-systemic signals from the N-deficient cucumber hosts did not obviously change the N-uptake activity of the N-replete cucumber hosts; however, in plant clusters comprising C. campestris -connected cucumber and soybean ( Glycine max ) plants, if the soybean plants were N-starved, the cucumber plants exhibited increased N-uptake activity. This study reveals that C. campestris facilitates plant–plant communications under N-stress conditions by enabling extensive bilateral N-systemic signaling between different hosts. Abstract : The parasitic plant Cuscuta campestris is able to transfer signals between different host plants, when one of its hosts suffers from nitrate starvation stress.