1.3 NO’s Role in Biotic Stress
Several studies conducted within the past decade have revealed that NO is engaged in communicating defense responses during plant–pathogen interactions. Pathogen challenges typically result in hypersensitization (HR). There is evidence that NO, in addition to forming reactive oxygen intermediates (ROIs) and salicylic acid (SA), plays a vital communication function throughout life (Delledonne et al. 1998; Durner and Klessig 1999).
Hypersensitized necrobiosis via NO is a prominent example of programmed cell death (PCD). NO-donor treatment of plant structure has been found to trigger chromatin granule condensation and dioxyribonucleic acid fragmentation (Clarke et al. 2000; Pedroso et al. 2000). Furthermore, NO-induced necrobiosis may be silenced by an animal caspase-1 molecule (Clarke et al. 2000). Despite studies demonstrating proteolytic enzyme activity in plants (D’Silva and Poirier 1998; Hatsugai et al. 2004; Rojo et al. 2004), associated transgenic plants with an overexpression of a proteolytic enzyme inhibitor – protein p35 and Op-IAP – show homologous recombination (HR) inhibition (Dickmann et al. 2001; Del Pozo and Lam 2003).
Plants have practical homologs of animal caspases, known as metacaspases (Bozhkov et al. 2005). Belenghi et al. (2007) recently demonstrated that A. thaliana metacaspase nine (AtMC9) is rendered inactive by S-nitrosylation of a cysteine residue in AtMC9. In turn, the mature form of this necrobiosis fiduciary is resistant to S-nitrosylation by NO. Exogenous NO promoted necrobiosis in Arabidopsis suspension cells in amounts comparable with those produced by cells challenged with an avirulent bacterium (Clarke et al. 2000). However, reactions between NO and H2O2 produce either singlet oxygen or free radicals (Noronha-Dutra et al. 1993), which might cause necrobiosis. A simultaneous rise in NO and H2O2 triggered necrobiosis in soybean and tobacco cell suspensions, but a rise in only one of the preceding variables promoted necrobiosis very modestly (Delledonne et al. 1998; de Pinto et al. 2002). Furthermore, microscopic anatomy studies revealed that either injection of NO donors or a change in H2O2 level has no effect on HR in infected oat cells, despite the fact that each molecule was required for the initiation of death in neighboring cells (Tada et al. 2004). The mechanism by which NO and H2O2 kill remains mostly unclear. The reaction of NO with O2 creates peroxynitrite, an exceedingly poisonous chemical for animal cells that mediates necrobiosis. ONOO− is relatively nontoxic to plants (Delledonne et al. 2001). However, it has been shown that ONOO− stimulates pathogenesis-related protein (PR-1) accumulation in tobacco leaves (Durner and Klessig 1999) and supermolecule nitration modulates cell oxido-reduction status (Delledonne et al. 2001). Furthermore, it was demonstrated that whereas peroxynitrite was responsible for the death of most Arabidopsis cells in response to avirulent Pseudomonas syringae, scavenging of this ion did not result in efficient defense against avirulent bacterium (Alamillo and Garcia-Olmedo 2001).
NO, when rebuilt into a peroxynitrite particle, may join forces in killing microorganisms (Durner and Klessig 1999; Romero-Puertas et al. 2004), though it has not been determined if NO and its derivatives are directly hazardous to plant diseases (Garcia-Olmedo et al. 2001). In vitro, it was undeniable that the growth of virulent and avirulent Pseudomonas bacterium was stifled by both NO and the plant system producing peroxynitrite (sodium nitroprusside + hypoxanthine/xanthine oxidase) (Noronha-Dutra et al. 1993; Garcia-Mata and Lamattina 2002). Romero-Puertas et al. (2004) proposed that ONOO− might be continuously synthesized in healthy cells, implying that plants may evolve certain detoxifying mechanisms. Ascorbates may have a significant role in the inactivation of ONOO− in animal cells (Arteel et al. 1999). Given that vitamin C (AsA) is a quantitatively dominant inhibitor in plant cells (Smirnoff 2000), it is possible that AsA also contributes to ONOO− breakdown in plant cells. The genetic composition of the plant (R genes) and the microbe (avr) seems to be strongly related to early NO production, referred to as NO burst (Mur et al. 2005; Bennett et al. 2005). Prompt gas generation (30–45 min after inoculation) was seen in noncompatible systems of P. s. pv. phaseolicola–tobacco and P. s. pv. tomato–Arabidopsis. This early NO burst happened six hours before the appearance of obvious HR-type death signs and directly preceded H2O2 production. As proof, plants injected with a mutant of the avirulent bacterium (hrp) incapable of supplying the avr supermolecule to the plant showed a lack of NO emission (Mur et al. 2005).
The use of fluorescent dyes in cytochemical methods has made it possible to present the mechanics of NO generation inside the stratum of tobacco leaves treated with cryptogein. After tissue treatment, a supermolecule elicitor derived from the morbific plant life Phytophthora cryptogea stimulated NO buildup at several minute intervals (Foissner et al. 2000). In turn, Prats et al. (2005) discovered a significant, transient rise in NO level before programmed death of barley dermal cells infected with Blumeria graminis f. sp. Hordei using DAF-2DA (5,6-diaminofluorescein diacetat) dye. Furthermore, Zeier et al. (2004) isolated an Arabidopsis transgenic line with overexpression of nitric oxide dioxygenase (NOD) gas, an accelerator catalyzing the twofold reaction of NO to nitrates. Transgenic plants treated with an avirulent strain of P.s. pv. tomato avr B showed decreased NO production and a significantly lower mortality rate, confirming that NO is required for HR stimulation. According to Modolo et al. (2006), P. syringae is diminished concurrently in NR-deficient double mutants (Nia1 and Nia2) of Arabidopsis because these plants lack l-arginine and NO2, endogenous precursors for NO production.
Until recently, it was thought that HR is only seen in incompatible relationships, where the plant has a resistance gene encoding R and the microbe has a virulence gene, avr (Levine et al. 1994). However, it has recently been demonstrated that HR of host cells may also arise in plants to partially protect against a specific microbe and only in the situation of non-host-kind resistance (Vleehouwers et al. 2000).
The majority of the evidence demonstrating that NO works as a messenger in gene-for-gene defensive responses was gained by studying completely separate plant–biotrophic microbe systems (Delledonne 2005). It has yet to be confirmed what part NO plays inside the plant and the necrotrophic