Gan Ai: The Plant Cell First Author

Gan Ai, co-first author of “BPL3 binds the long noncoding RNA nalncFL7 to suppress FORKED-LIKE7 and modulate HAI1-mediated MPK3/6 dephosphorylation in plant immunity” 

Current Position: Postdoctor

Education: Ph.D. in Nanjing Agricultural University (NJAU)

Non-scientific Interests: Reading, Music

Brief bio: I joined Prof. Daolong Dou’s group at NJAU since 2016. My research is mainly focused on the Phytophthora effector-guided identification of plant defense-related genes. In a previous work, we identified a novel RNA-binding protein family (BPA1-Like Proteins) using the effector, RXLR207, from Phytophthora capsici. Among which, the Arabidopsis BPL3 (BPA1-Like Proteins 3) negatively regulates ROS accumulation and cell death under biotic stresses but the underlying mechanism was unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that BPL3 suppressed FL7 (Forked-like 7) transcripts accumulation and elevates levels of its cis-natural antisense lncRNA of FL7 (nalncFL7). FL7 positively regulated plant immunity to P. capsici while nalncFL7 was a negative regulator of resistance. We showed that BPL3 directly bound to and then stabilized nalncFL7. At the same time, nalncFL7 suppressed accumulation of FL7 transcripts. Furthermore, FL7 interacted with HAI1, a type 2C protein phosphatase (PP2C), and inhibited the phosphatase activity of HAI1. By suppressing HAI1 activity, FL7 promoted phosphorylation levels of MPK3 (Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase 3) and MPK6, thus enhancing immunity responses. We found that BPL3 and FL7 were conserved in all the tested plants, while BPL3-nalncFL7-FL7 cascade was found in Brassicaceae plants. Together, we identified a conserved cascade of BPL3-nalncFL7-FL7 that coordinates plant immunity.

中文版

姓名：艾干

目前职位：博士后

教育背景：南京农业大学，博士毕业生

兴趣爱好：阅读、音乐

个人简历：我从2016开始加入南京农业大学植物保护学院攻读研究生，师从窦道龙教授。博士毕业后以博士后身份继续在本团队进行研究工作。我的研究方向是利用疫霉菌效应子进行植物抗病相关基因的鉴定与应用。前期工作中，我们利用辣椒疫霉效应子RXLR207鉴定到了一类功能未知的RNA结合蛋白家族，命名为BPL (BPA1-Like)蛋白家族。研究发现BPL家族负调控植物的活性氧积累和细胞死亡，并负调控植物免疫。其中BPL3有主效作用，其他蛋白则功能冗余。在本研究中，我们进一步探索了BPL3负调控免疫的机制，发现BPL3能够调控一对天然的反义链——FL7 (Forked-like 7)和nalncFL7 (cis-natural antisense lncRNA of FL7)。BPL3与nalncFL7结合并稳定nalncFL7，nalncFL7能够抑制FL7的RNA积累。而FL7是PP2C A家族蛋白HAI1的磷酸酶活性抑制子，能够抑制HAI1将MPK3/6 (Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase 3/6)去磷酸化。最终我们发现了一条新的植物免疫调控途径——BPL3-nalncFL7-FL7-HAI1通路，解析了BPL3负调控植物免疫的机制。