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

Yunpeng Liu, Xia Shu, Lin Chen, Huihui Zhang, Haichao Feng, Xiting Sun, Qin Xiong, Guangqi Li, Weibing Xun, Zhihui Xu, Nan Zhang, Corné M J Pieterse, Qirong Shen, Ruifu Zhang

Journal: Nature microbiology 2023;8(8):1434-1449

PMID: 37248429

Full Text on Nature Publishing Group View on PubMed

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.

Address: 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. [email protected].; 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.; 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.; State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.; Experimental Center of Forestry in North China, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, P. R. China.; Plant-Microbe Interactions, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.; 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. [email protected].; 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. [email protected].

DOI: 10.1038/s41564-023-01402-1

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01402-1

MeSH Terms: Type VII Secretion Systems, Bacterial Proteins, Symbiosis, Rhizosphere