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Plants
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The Role of Cell Wall in Plant Defense
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The Role of Cell Wall in Plant Defense

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Cell Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2020) | Viewed by 17446

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lucia Marti

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Guest Editor
Department of Biology and Biotechnologie “Charles Darwin”, University of Rome Sapienza, 00167 Rome, Italy
Interests: plant cell wall; plant–pathogen interactions; cell wall integrity; plant innate immunity
Dr. Simone Ferrari

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Guest Editor
Department of Biology and Biotechnologie “Charles Darwin”, University of Rome Sapienza, 00167 Rome, Italy
Interests: plant cell wall; plant-pathogen interactions; cell wall integrity; plant innate immunity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The cell wall is a distinctive feature of plants and has many important roles in growth and development, resistance to stress, cell–cell communication, and plant–microbe interactions. The cell wall is the first barrier encountered by invading microbes, and its importance in the ability of plants to counteract pathogens is now clear. The current research is aimed at understanding the complexity of plant cell walls, in terms of their biochemical composition, organization, biogenesis, deposition, and remodeling, and how this complexity is exploited by both pathogens, to gain access to plant tissues and successfully invade their host, and by the attacked plant, to recognize a potential pathogen and mount proper responses. Pathogens have evolved extremely sophisticated tools to breach the cell wall and deconstruct its components, while plants have developed mechanisms to reinforce the cell wall and limit the action of microbial enzymes. Furthermore, plants can monitor cell wall integrity (CWI) through the perception of mechanical cues, and of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) released from cell wall structural components, triggering responses that have striking similarities, but also differences, to those induced by microbial elicitors. Recent studies have revealed some of the molecular components of this CWI perception system, but we are far from understanding it in full. More detailed knowledge of the relationships between cell wall composition and architecture, and defense against pathogens will likely be facilitated by technological advancements in microscopy, spectroscopy, and analytical chemistry. This knowledge might be exploited to develop crops more resistant to microbial diseases, and provide insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying plant immunity, growth, and response to stress. This Special Issue of Plants will highlight the complexity of the cell wall structure, cell wall-derived signals, and cell wall-mediated defense responses, as well as their role in the interactions of plants with microbial pathogens.

Dr. Simone Ferrari
Dr. Lucia Marti
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • plant cell wall
  • cell wall integrity
  • innate immunity
  • plant–pathogen interactions
  • damage-associated molecular patterns

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 2691 KiB  
Article
Post-Synthetic Reduction of Pectin Methylesterification Causes Morphological Abnormalities and Alterations to Stress Response in Arabidopsis thaliana
by Nathan T. Reem, Lauran Chambers, Ning Zhang, Siti Farah Abdullah, Yintong Chen, Guanhua Feng, Song Gao, Junmarie Soto-Burgos, Gennady Pogorelko, Diane C. Bassham, Charles T. Anderson, Justin W. Walley and Olga A. Zabotina
Plants 2020, 9(11), 1558; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9111558 - 12 Nov 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4427
Abstract
Pectin is a critical component of the plant cell wall, supporting wall biomechanics and contributing to cell wall signaling in response to stress. The plant cell carefully regulates pectin methylesterification with endogenous pectin methylesterases (PMEs) and their inhibitors (PMEIs) to promote growth and [...] Read more.
Pectin is a critical component of the plant cell wall, supporting wall biomechanics and contributing to cell wall signaling in response to stress. The plant cell carefully regulates pectin methylesterification with endogenous pectin methylesterases (PMEs) and their inhibitors (PMEIs) to promote growth and protect against pathogens. We expressed Aspergillus nidulans pectin methylesterase (AnPME) in Arabidopsis thaliana plants to determine the impacts of methylesterification status on pectin function. Plants expressing AnPME had a roughly 50% reduction in methylester content compared with control plants. AnPME plants displayed a severe dwarf phenotype, including small, bushy rosettes and shorter roots. This phenotype was caused by a reduction in cell elongation. Cell wall composition was altered in AnPME plants, with significantly more arabinose and significantly less galacturonic acid, suggesting that plants actively monitor and compensate for altered pectin content. Cell walls of AnPME plants were more readily degraded by polygalacturonase (PG) alone but were less susceptible to treatment with a mixture of PG and PME. AnPME plants were insensitive to osmotic stress, and their susceptibility to Botrytis cinerea was comparable to wild type plants despite their compromised cell walls. This is likely due to upregulated expression of defense response genes observed in AnPME plants. These results demonstrate the importance of pectin in both normal growth and development, and in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Cell Wall in Plant Defense)
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Review

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20 pages, 1224 KiB  
Review
Host Cell Wall Damage during Pathogen Infection: Mechanisms of Perception and Role in Plant-Pathogen Interactions
by Riccardo Lorrai and Simone Ferrari
Plants 2021, 10(2), 399; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10020399 - 19 Feb 2021
Cited by 69 | Viewed by 11562
Abstract
The plant cell wall (CW) is a complex structure that acts as a mechanical barrier, restricting the access to most microbes. Phytopathogenic microorganisms can deploy an arsenal of CW-degrading enzymes (CWDEs) that are required for virulence. In turn, plants have evolved proteins able [...] Read more.
The plant cell wall (CW) is a complex structure that acts as a mechanical barrier, restricting the access to most microbes. Phytopathogenic microorganisms can deploy an arsenal of CW-degrading enzymes (CWDEs) that are required for virulence. In turn, plants have evolved proteins able to inhibit the activity of specific microbial CWDEs, reducing CW damage and favoring the accumulation of CW-derived fragments that act as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and trigger an immune response in the host. CW-derived DAMPs might be a component of the complex system of surveillance of CW integrity (CWI), that plants have evolved to detect changes in CW properties. Microbial CWDEs can activate the plant CWI maintenance system and induce compensatory responses to reinforce CWs during infection. Recent evidence indicates that the CWI surveillance system interacts in a complex way with the innate immune system to fine-tune downstream responses and strike a balance between defense and growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Cell Wall in Plant Defense)
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