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N,N-dimethylsphingosine, an inhibitor of sphingosine kinase, induces phytoalexin production and hypersensitive cell death of Solanaceae plants without generation of reactive oxygen species

  • Fungal Diseases
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Abstract

Plant recognition of elicitors derived from pathogens induces various resistant reactions, including production of reactive oxygen species, hypersensitive cell death and accumulation of phytoalexins. Previously, we isolated a ceramide elicitor from Phytophthora infestans, which activates O2 − production of potato suspension-cultured cells. In this study, we employed nine ceramide-related chemicals to test their elicitor activity. Although, none of the tested chemicals induced O2 − production, N,N-dimethylsphingosine (DMS) induced accumulation of phytoalexin in potato tubers. In potato, tobacco and Nicotiana benthamiana, DMS also induced rapid cell death. DMS-treated potato cells stained with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) showed chromatin condensation, and isolated DNA from DMS-treated cells had ladder pattern, confirming that DMS-induced plant cell death is a hypersensitive reaction-like programmed cell death. Involvement of ceramide signaling in induction of plant defense reactions is discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Sophien Kamoun (The Sainsbury Laboratory) for providing pFB53 vector, Professor David C. Baulcombe (University of Cambridge) for pTV00 vector and the Leaf Tobacco Research Center, Japan Tobacco, for N. benthamiana seeds. We are grateful to Sanjay Saikia for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (18380032) and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) (20780032) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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  1. Plant Pathology Laboratory, Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    Sadao Uruma, Yusuke Shibata, Daigo Takemoto & Kazuhito Kawakita

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  1. Sadao Uruma
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  2. Yusuke Shibata
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  3. Daigo Takemoto
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  4. Kazuhito Kawakita
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Correspondence to Kazuhito Kawakita.

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Uruma, S., Shibata, Y., Takemoto, D. et al. N,N-dimethylsphingosine, an inhibitor of sphingosine kinase, induces phytoalexin production and hypersensitive cell death of Solanaceae plants without generation of reactive oxygen species. J Gen Plant Pathol 75, 257–266 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10327-009-0176-y

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