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Poster

Session: Session 1 Presenting Authors at Posters (Odds)

P-097 - Tomato roots exhibit distinct, development-specific responses to bacterial-derived peptides

Monday, July 14, 2025
13:30 - 15:15  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Extracellular & Intracellular non-self recognition & signaling
Pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) are conserved sequences found among a range of microbes. PAMP recognition by p</span>attern recognition receptors (PRRs) triggers downstream defense responses including ROS burst, MAPK activation, and growth inhibition that together are known as pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). While many PTI studies have identified PAMP/PRR pairs in Arabidopsis pathosystems, the number of PRRs/PAMPs beyond this system continues to expand. Interfamily and interspecies transfer of PRRs has been successful for developing broad-spectrum resistance in crops. However, for this strategy to be sustainable, a deeper understanding of PTI responses in crop species is needed. Here, we characterize PTI responses in tomato roots associated with PAMPs from bacterial pathogens of tomato: Pseudomonas syringae and Ralstonia solanacearum. Our results reveal significant differences in the PTI response compared to Arabidopsis, such as the absence of temporary root growth inhibition (RGI) in response to csp22 and flgII-28, differential regulation of ROS by SERK3a/SERK3b, and selective activation of MPK1/2/3. Further, we demonstrated that MPK1/2/3 phosphorylation and ROS burst are localized to specific developmental regions of tomato roots. RNA-seq analysis of these regions revealed the early differentiation zone – where root hairs are emerging, but not fully emerged – as the primary site of transcriptional reprogramming in response to FLS2- and FLS3-mediated PTI.