The damage-associated molecular pattern cellotriose alters the phosphorylation pattern of proteins involved in cellulose synthesis and trans-Golgi trafficking in Arabidopsis thaliana

ABSTRACT

We have recently demonstrated that the cellulose breakdown product cellotriose is a damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) which induces responses related to the integrity of the cell wall. Activation of downstream responses requires the Arabidopsis malectin domain-containing CELLOOLIGOMER RECEPTOR KINASE1 (CORK1)¹. The cellotriose/CORK1 pathway induces immune responses, including NADPH oxidase-mediated reactive oxygen species production, mitogen-activated protein kinase 3/6 phosphorylation-dependent defense gene activation, and the biosynthesis of defense hormones. However, apoplastic accumulation of cell wall breakdown products should also activate cell wall repair mechanisms. We demonstrate that the phosphorylation pattern of numerous proteins involved in the accumulation of an active cellulose synthase complex in the plasma membrane and those for protein trafficking to and within the trans-Golgi network (TGN) are altered within minutes after cellotriose application to Arabidopsis roots. The phosphorylation pattern of enzymes involved in hemicellulose or pectin biosynthesis and the transcript levels for polysaccharide-synthesizing enzymes responded barely to cellotriose treatments. Our data show that the phosphorylation pattern of proteins involved in cellulose biosynthesis and trans-Golgi trafficking is an early target of the cellotriose/CORK1 pathway.

KEYWORDS:

• Cell wall
• protein phosphorylation
• Arabidopsis
• membrane protein trafficking
• malectin domain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author’s contributions

A.G. and Y.-H.T. performed the experiments. A.G. and R.O. wrote up the study. All authors contributed to the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

Raw sequences for the GWAS and the transcriptome analysis have been deposited to the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) with the accession no. GSE197891 and GSE198092, respectively. The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride) with dataset identifier PXD033224.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (CRC1127, project ID: 239748522 to R.O.).