TOPLESS Corepressors as an Emerging Hub of Plant Pathogen Effectors

Abstract

Transcriptional corepressors form an ancient and essential layer of gene expression control in eukaryotes. TOPLESS and TOPLESS-RELATED (TPL/TPR) proteins constitute a conserved family of Groucho (Gro)/thymidine uptake 1 (Tup1)-type transcriptional corepressors and control diverse growth, developmental, and stress signaling responses in plants. Because of their central and versatile regulatory roles, they act as a signaling hub to integrate various input signaling pathways in the transcriptional responses. Recently, increasing pieces of evidence indicate the roles of TPL/TPR family proteins in the modulation of plant immunity. This is supported by studies on effectors of distantly related pathogens that target TPL/TPR proteins in planta. In this short review, we will summarize the latest findings concerning pathogens targeting plant TPL/TPR proteins to manipulate plant signaling responses for the successful invasion of their hosts. [Graphic: see text] Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Keywords

• convergent evolution
• EAR motif
• mechanisms of pathogenicity
• microbial effectors
• TOPLESS corepressor