Zhiyi Wang: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Plant Protection, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
Xiaorong Yang: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Plant Protection, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
Siqi Zhou: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Plant Protection, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
Xishan Zhang: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Plant Protection, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China. ORCID
Yingzhi Zhu: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Plant Protection, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
Biao Chen: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Plant Protection, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
Xiuqin Huang: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Plant Protection, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
Xin Yang: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Plant Protection, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China. ORCID
Guohui Zhou: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Plant Protection, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
Tong Zhang: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Plant Protection, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China. ORCID
Phytoplasmas are uncultivable, phloem-limited, phytopathogenic bacteria that represent a major threat to agriculture worldwide. Phytoplasma membrane proteins are in direct contact with hosts and presumably play a crucial role in phytoplasma spread within the plant as well as by the insect vector. Three highly abundant types of immunodominant membrane proteins (IDP) have been identified within the phytoplasmas: immunodominant membrane protein (Imp), immunodominant membrane protein A (IdpA), and antigenic membrane protein (Amp). Although recent results indicate that Amp is involved in host specificity by interacting with host proteins such as actin, little is known about the pathogenicity of IDP in plants. In this study, we identified an antigenic membrane protein (Amp) of rice orange leaf phytoplasma (ROLP), which interacts with the actin of its vector. In addition, we generated Amp-transgenic lines of rice and expressed Amp in tobacco leaves by the potato virus X (PVX) expression system. Our results showed that the Amp of ROLP can induce the accumulation of ROLP and PVX in rice and tobacco plants, respectively. Although several studies have reported interactions between major phytoplasma antigenic membrane protein (Amp) and insect vector proteins, this example demonstrates that Amp protein can not only interact with the actin protein of its insect vector but can also directly inhibit host defense responses to promote the infection. The function of ROLP Amp provides new insights into the phytoplasma-host interaction.
