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Design of a bacterial speck resistant tomato by CRISPR /Cas9‐mediated editing of Sl JAZ 2

2018; Wiley; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/pbi.13006

1467-7652

Andrés Ortigosa, Selena Giménez-Ibánez, Nathalie Leonhardt, Roberto Solano,

Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity

Summary Due to their different lifestyles, effective defence against biotrophic pathogens normally leads to increased susceptibility to necrotrophs, and vice versa. Solving this trade‐off is a major challenge for obtaining broad‐spectrum resistance in crops and requires uncoupling the antagonism between the jasmonate ( JA ) and salicylate ( SA ) defence pathways. Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato ( Pto ) DC 3000, the causal agent of tomato bacterial speck disease, produces coronatine ( COR ) that stimulates stomata opening and facilitates bacterial leaf colonization. In Arabidopsis, stomata response to COR requires the COR co‐receptor At JAZ 2, and dominant At JAZ 2Δjas repressors resistant to proteasomal degradation prevent stomatal opening by COR . Here, we report the generation of a tomato variety resistant to the bacterial speck disease caused by Pto DC 3000 without compromising resistance to necrotrophs. We identified the functional ortholog of At JAZ 2 in tomato, found that preferentially accumulates in stomata and proved that Sl JAZ 2 is a major co‐receptor of COR in stomatal guard cells. Sl JAZ 2 was edited using CRISPR /Cas9 to generate dominant JAZ 2 repressors lacking the C‐terminal Jas domain (Sl JAZ 2Δjas). Sl JAZ 2Δjas prevented stomatal reopening by COR and provided resistance to Pto DC 3000. Water transpiration rate and resistance to the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea , causal agent of the tomato gray mold, remained unaltered in Sljaz2Δjas plants. Our results solve the defence trade‐off in a crop, by spatially uncoupling the SA ‐ JA hormonal antagonism at the stomata, entry gates of specific microbes such as Pto DC 3000. Moreover, our results also constitute a novel CRISPR /Cas‐based strategy for crop protection that could be readily implemented in the field.