Rekhter, D. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2019

Enhanced Disease Susceptibility 5 (EDS5) is required for N-hydroxy pipecolic acid formation

Pipecolic acid is essential for the establishment of systemic acquired resistance in plants. It is synthesized in the plastid and further processed in the cytosol to its active form N-hydroxy pipecolic acid. Here we provide strong evidence that the exporter Enhanced Disease Susceptibility 5 is required for the biosynthesis of not only salicylic acid, but also N-hydroxy pipecolic acid, suggesting that it represents a convergent point of plant immunity.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2019

From isochorismate to salicylate: a new reaction mechanism for salicylic acid biosynthesis

The phytohormone salicylic acid (SA) is a central regulator of plant immunity. Despite such functional importance, our knowledge of its biosynthesis is incomplete. Previous work showed that SA is synthesized from chorismic acid in plastids. The bulk of pathogen-induced SA derives from isochorismate generated by the catalytic activity of ISOCHORISMATE SYNTHASE1 (ICS1). How and in which cellular compartment isochorismate is converted to SA is unknown. Here we show that the pathway downstream of isochorismate requires only two additional proteins: the plastidial isochorismate exporter ENHANCED DISEASE SUSCEPTIBILITY5 (EDS5) and the cytosolic amido-transferase AvrPphB SUSCEPTIBLE3 (PBS3). PBS3 catalyzes the conjugation of glutamate to isochorismate. The reaction product isochorismate-9-glutamate spontaneously decomposes into enolpyruvyl-N-glutamate and SA. This previously unknown reaction mechanism appears to be conserved throughout the plant kingdom.\n\nOne Sentence SummarySalicylic acid is synthesized via isochorismate-9-glutamate by PBS3.

plant biology↗