Chloroplast-Associated ROS Signaling Shapes Tissue-Specific Pathogenicity Mechanisms of Candidatus Liberibacter...

The phloem-colonizing bacterial pathogen Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) causes the devastating citrus Huanglongbing (HLB). Despite the important roles of roots, how CLas affects roots remains largely unknown. Here we dissected host responses in leaf and root at different time points after CLas inoculation. Our data showed that CLas triggers less reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and phloem callose deposition, which are known to contribute to HLB symptom development in leaves, in roots than leaves. Increased chloroplastic ROS accumulation was detected in CLas-infected leaf compared to uninfected controls, which may explain the increased ROS levels in leaves than roots infected by CLas. qRT-PCR and RNA-seq analyses showed global induction of immune related pathways in both roots and leaves, whereas photosynthesis related pathways were only downregulated in leaves, but not in roots, by CLas infection. The differential expression pattern related to immunity and photosynthesis in the leaf and root tissues suggests that chloroplasts might be involved in the differences in ROS accumulation and callose deposition. Root cell death was observed in HLB symptomatic trees regardless of CLas infection status of roots. Significantly more starch accumulation was first observed in CLas positive leaves than healthy controls followed by starch depletion in CLas positive roots later, suggesting a causative relationship between them. Taken together, root cell death caused by CLas infection maybe caused by carbon starvation rather than via a similar mechanism as in leaves. Our data suggests chloroplasts play a critical role in the different pathogenicity mechanisms of CLas in leaf and root.