Mitogen-activated kinase 6 facilitates autophagy initiation to confer salt tolerance in maize

Tightly regulated autophagy is essential in eukaryotes, and this pathway is stimulated by cellular and environmental stresses. In plants, salt stress-induced autophagy crucially functions in building salt tolerance. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this process remain largely enigmatic. This study reveals that salt stress triggers specific mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase activation, which, through phosphorylation, stimulates the assembly of autophagy initiation complexes to promote salt tolerance in maize. Salt-activated ZmMPK6 phosphorylates ZmATG101 at an evolutionarily deeply conserved Ser-190. Phosphorylation of S190 functions as a molecular switch through controlling the formation of ZmATG101-ZmATG11a complexes for autophagy initiation. Consistently, mutants lacking ZmMPK6, ZmATG101, or ZmATG11a exhibit compromised autophagy induction and salt tolerance. Thus, this study discovers a fundamental mechanism for autophagy initiation regulation through ATG101 scaffold phosphorylation and defines a MAPK-ATG101-ATG11 module as governing plant salt tolerance.