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A structural view of salicylic acid perception

Nature Plants volume 6, pages 1197–1198 (2020)Cite this article

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Salicylic acid (SA) is an essential hormone for plant immune responses. In Arabidopsis, SA is perceived by two groups of receptors, NPR1 and NPR3/4, which play opposite roles in regulating defence gene expression. How SA binds to its receptors is now revealed by crystal structure analysis.

Salicylic acid (SA) is a plant defence hormone required for both local and systemic immunity1. Upon pathogen infection, SA levels increase in infected and distal tissues, leading to the activation and amplification of defence responses. SA perception has been primarily studied in Arabidopsis thaliana. Arabidopsis NON-EXPRESSER OF PATHOGENESIS-RELATED GENES 1 (NPR1) and NPR3/4 were previously identified as SA receptors2,3,4, with NPR1 and NPR3 binding to SA with similar affinity. Although NPR3 and NPR4 have redundant functions, the affinity of NPR4 for SA is about 5–10-fold higher. Both NPR1 and NPR3/4 interact with the transcription factors TGA2/5/6 but play opposite roles in transcriptional regulation of SA-responsive genes1. NPR1 serves as a transcriptional activator that promotes SA-induced defence gene expression5,6. On the other hand, NPR3/4 act as transcriptional repressors and SA induces defence gene expression by inhibiting their activities2. Loss of SA-binding activity in the gain-of-function npr4-4D mutant results in compromised SA-induced immune responses. Arabidopsis NPR1 lacks the ERF-associated amphiphilic repression (EAR) motif required for transcriptional repression in NPR3/4, but NPR1 family members in some other plant species carry the EAR motif7. Whether these NPR1s can serve as transcriptional repressors in the absence of SA is unclear.

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Fig. 1: A model for SA perception.

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Acknowledgements

We thank N. Zheng for discussions, K. Ao for careful reading of the manuscript and K. T. Devendrakumar for assistance with making the figure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Xin Li & Yuelin Zhang

  2. Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Xin Li

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  1. Xin Li
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  2. Yuelin Zhang
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Correspondence to Yuelin Zhang.

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Li, X., Zhang, Y. A structural view of salicylic acid perception. Nat. Plants 6, 1197–1198 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0741-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0741-0

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