Endophyte Bacillus subtilis evade plant defense by producing lantibiotic subtilomycin to mask self-produced flagellin

Microbes can enter into healthy plants as endophytes and confer beneficial functions. The entry of commensal microbes into plants involves penetrating plant defense. Most mechanisms about overcoming plant defense are focused on adapted pathogens, while the mechanism involved in beneficial endophyte evades plant defense to achieve harmonious commensalism is unclear. Here, we discover a mechanism that an endophyte bacterium Bacillus subtilis BSn5 reduce to stimulate the plant defensive response by producing lantibiotic subtilomycin to bind self-produced flagellin. Subtilomycin bind with flagellin and affect flg22-induced plant defense, by which means promotes the endophytic colonization in A. thaliana. Subtilomycin also promotes the BSn5 colonization in a distinct plant, Amorphophallus konjac, where the BSn5 was isolated. Our investigation shows more independent subtilomycin/-like producers are isolated from distinct plants. Our work unveils a common strategy that is used for bacterial endophytic colonization.

In silico study to examine the role of amino acids in Jasmonate induced plant defense process

The role of amino acid is important to Jasmonate induce plant defense process. Jasmonic acid and amino acid Isoleucine conjugate (JA-Ile) has been found to be necessary to achieve such process effectively. We have examined the origin of such process computationally and showed that Isoleucine is more active compared to other Jasmonic acid conjugates. The epimerization process revealed that Isoleucine conjugated Jasmonic acid is energetically a favoured process compared to JA-Leu and JA-Val. Water has functioned as a catalyst in the whole epimerization process. This study would unravel the importance of Isoleucine in the Jasmonic acid induced plant defense process.