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Plant commensal type VII secretion system causes iron leakage from roots to promote colonization

Nature Microbiology volume 8, pages 1434–1449 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Competition for iron is an important factor for microbial niche establishment in the rhizosphere. Pathogenic and beneficial symbiotic bacteria use various secretion systems to interact with their hosts and acquire limited resources from the environment. Bacillus spp. are important plant commensals that encode a type VII secretion system (T7SS). However, the function of this secretion system in rhizobacteria–plant interactions is unclear. Here we use the beneficial rhizobacterium Bacillus velezensis SQR9 to show that the T7SS and the major secreted protein YukE are critical for root colonization. In planta experiments and liposome-based experiments demonstrate that secreted YukE inserts into the plant plasma membrane and causes root iron leakage in the early stage of inoculation. The increased availability of iron promotes root colonization by SQR9. Overall, our work reveals a previously undescribed role of the T7SS in a beneficial rhizobacterium to promote colonization and thus plant–microbe interactions.

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Fig. 1: Contribution of the B. velezensis SQR9 tT7SS to root colonization.
Fig. 2: Effect of the SQR9-derived strain and YukE on plant iron content.
Fig. 3: YukE-mediated root iron leakage contributes to root colonization by SQR9.
Fig. 4: YukE function and location on the surface of 15-day-old Arabidopsis cells.
Fig. 5: Insertion of YukE into the plant plasma membrane.
Fig. 6: Comparison of the function of the T7SS and the siderophore-Feu system in B. velezensis SQR9.

Data availability

Raw data for the plant RNA-seq have been deposited in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) with the accession number PRJNA649312. Summary data for strains, plasmids and oligonucleotides used in this study can be found in Supplementary Tables 4 and 5. The crystal form of Geobacillus thermodenitrificans EsxA could be download with PDB identifier: 3ZBH (https://www.rcsb.org/structure/3ZBH). Other data supporting the findings of the present study are available within the paper, in Extended Data and the Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32070104, Y.L.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32172661, R.Z.), the National Key Research and Development Programme (2022YFF1001804, R.Z.), the National Key Research and Development Program (2021YFF1000400, Y.L. and R.Z.), the Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (No. Y2022QC15, Y.L.), and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (CAAS-ZDRW202308, Y.L.). We thank H. Wei and J. Li of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, for providing the strains and plasmid used in the Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression experiment; and X. Shen of the College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, for help with editing the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally to this study: Yunpeng Liu, Xia Shu, Lin Chen.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Arid and Semi-arid Arable Land in Northern China (the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yunpeng Liu, Xia Shu, Xiting Sun, Qin Xiong, Guangqi Li & Ruifu Zhang

  2. Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, National Engineering Research Center for Organic-based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, P.R. China

    Xia Shu, Huihui Zhang, Haichao Feng, Weibing Xun, Zhihui Xu, Nan Zhang, Qirong Shen & Ruifu Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China

    Xia Shu

  4. Experimental Center of Forestry in North China, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, P. R. China

    Lin Chen

  5. Plant-Microbe Interactions, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

    Corné M. J. Pieterse

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Contributions

Y.L. and R.Z. conceptualized the project; X. Shu, L.C. and G.L conducted formal analysis; Y.L., X. Shu, L.C., H.Z. and X. Sun conducted the investigation; H.F. and Q.X. performed verification; Y.L. and L.C. wrote the original draft; L.C., C.M.J.P. and R.Z. reviewed and edited the paper; X. Shu, W.X. and Z.X. performed visualization; Y.L., C.M.J.P. and R.Z. supervised the work; N.Z. and Q.S. administered the project; Y.L. and R.Z acquired funding. All authors read and approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Yunpeng Liu or Ruifu Zhang.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Colonization of roots of Arabidopsis and cucumber grown in soil.

WT and the derived strains were introduced with gfp fragments in their genomes for specific detection by qPCR in soil. Bacteria were inoculated to a final concentration of 107 cells/mL. DNA of the rhizosphere soil was extracted at 2 days post-inoculation. qRT‒PCR was used to measure the copies of the gfp fragment. (A) The gnotobiotic FlowPot device was used to grow Arabidopsis in soil. (B-D) Root colonization of Arabidopsis grown in sterile soil (B), in sterile soil with a microbial community extracted from natural soil (C) and in natural soil (D). Ferrozine and excess iron were supplied at the mean time of inoculation at final concentrations of 300 μM and 180 μM, respectively, when necessary. (E) Root colonization of cucumber grown in natural soil. Fifteen-day-old Arabidopsis Col-0 plants and 21-day-old cucumber plants were used for the colonization assay. Error bars indicate the standard errors. Three replicates were included for each strain. Different letters above the column indicate significant differences (two-side one-way ANOVA or two-way ANOVA with Duncan’s multiple-range tests, α = 0.05, for (B C and E): P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P < 0.001, for the two-way ANOVA in (D), P < 0.001, for the one-way ANOVA in (D), from left to right, P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P < 0.001).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 2 Effect of the B. velezensis SQR9 type VII secretion system (T7SS) on the transcription of iron acquisition genes in 15-day-old Arabidopsis.

(A) Functional enrichment of the DEGs in the YukE treatment but not in the heat-treated YukE treatment. Briefly, 5 μM purified YukE or heat-treated YukE was added to the plant medium, and RNA-seq was performed at 1 h, 3 h, 6 h and 24 h post-treatment. The FPKM value of each gene in the YukE or heat-treated YukE treatment was compared with that of untreated plants to identify the DEGs. Then, DEGs in the YukE and heat-treated YukE treatments were compared to identify the DEGs present in the YukE treatment but not in the heat-treated YukE treatment. These DEGs were then subjected to functional enrichment analysis using DAVID (https://david.ncifcrf.gov). (B) The iron acquisition pathway in Arabidopsis. (C-E) Relative expression of FIT (C), IRT1 (D), and FRO2 (E) in 15-day-old Arabidopsis roots in response to wild-type B. velezensis SQR9 and the mutants DT7, DyukE and DT7E measured by qRT–PCR. CK indicates the untreated plant. Roots were harvested at 3, 6 and 24 h post-inoculation, respectively. Actin served as a reference. Data are presented as mean values +/- SEM (n = 3). Different letters above the column indicate significant differences (two-side one-way ANOVA or two-way ANOVA with Duncan’s multiple-range tests, α = 0.05, for one-way ANOVA in (C-E), P = 0.258, P = 0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0.560, P = 0.003, P = 0.008, P = 0.307, P = 0.009, P < 0.001, for all the two-way ANOVA in (C-E), P < 0.001). This experiment was repeated three times with similar results.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 3 YukE enhances the growth-promoting effect of B. velezensis SQR9 on cucumber.

CK indicates the untreated plant. Cucumber was inoculated by dipping the root into a cell suspension (107 cells/mL) with or without 5 μM YukE for 1 day before transplanting into soil. Data are presented as mean values +/- SEM (n = 10). Different letters above the column indicate significant differences (two-side one-way ANOVA with Duncan’s multiple-range tests, α = 0.05, P < 0.001). This experiment was repeated twice with similar results.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 4 Model for the role of YukE in the decrease in root iron content.

The predicted structure of YukE consists of two helices with a helix-turn-helix motif (WXG motif). The protein was structured as a dimer in vivo and in vitro. The length of the protein is 10.1 Å. The thickness of the phospholipid bilayer is approximately 10 Å. YukE may be inserted into the phospholipid bilayer to cause iron leakage from root cells.

Extended Data Fig. 5

Model of T7SS function in the interaction of B. velezensis SQR9 and plant cells.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Protein structures of YukE and EsxA.

(A-C) Structure of the YukE homodimer built by Swiss-model using EsxA of M. tuberculosis as the template. The polarity of the residues is colored. Red indicates a higher polarity calculated by PyMOL (V. 2.4.1). (D-F) Asymmetric unit of EsxA from Geobacillus thermodenitrificans. Different colors indicate different molecules.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information

Supplementary Figs. 1–19.

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Supplementary Table

Supplementary Tables 1–5.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Statistical source data and unprocessed western blots.

Source Data Fig. 1

Statistical source data and unprocessed western blots.

Source Data Fig. 2

Statistical source data.

Source Data Fig. 3

Statistical source data.

Source Data Fig. 5

Statistical source data.

Source Data Fig. 6

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Source Data Extended Data Fig. 1

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Source Data Extended Data Fig. 2

Statistical source data.

Source Data Extended Data Fig. 3

Statistical source data.

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Liu, Y., Shu, X., Chen, L. et al. Plant commensal type VII secretion system causes iron leakage from roots to promote colonization. Nat Microbiol 8, 1434–1449 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01402-1

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