Exploring the Roles of Aquaporins in Plant–Microbe Interactions
Ruirui Wang,
Min Wang,
Kehao Chen,
Shiyu Wang,
Luis Alejandro Jose Mur,
Shiwei Guo
Affiliations
Ruirui Wang
Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Solid Organic Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-Saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Min Wang
Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Solid Organic Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-Saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Kehao Chen
Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Solid Organic Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-Saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Shiyu Wang
Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Solid Organic Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-Saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Luis Alejandro Jose Mur
Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3DA, UK
Shiwei Guo
Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Solid Organic Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-Saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Aquaporins (AQPs) are membrane channel proteins regulating the flux of water and other various small solutes across membranes. Significant progress has been made in understanding the roles of AQPs in plants’ physiological processes, and now their activities in various plant⁻microbe interactions are receiving more attention. This review summarizes the various roles of different AQPs during interactions with microbes which have positive and negative consequences on the host plants. In positive plant⁻microbe interactions involving rhizobia, arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM), and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), AQPs play important roles in nitrogen fixation, nutrient transport, improving water status, and increasing abiotic stress tolerance. For negative interactions resulting in pathogenesis, AQPs help plants resist infections by preventing pathogen ingress by influencing stomata opening and influencing defensive signaling pathways, especially through regulating systemic acquired resistance. Interactions with bacterial or viral pathogens can be directly perturbed through direct interaction of AQPs with harpins or replicase. However, whilst these observations indicate the importance of AQPs, further work is needed to develop a fuller mechanistic understanding of their functions.
