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First published online June 26, 2009; 10.1104/pp.109.140004 Plant Physiology 150:1631-1637 (2009) © 2009 American Society of Plant Biologists
Underexplored Niches in Research on Plant Pathogenic BacteriaDepartment of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Despite rapid advances on certain aspects of plant pathogenic bacteria, many economically important pathosystems are largely unexplored and biologically relevant life stages of even familiar systems remain poorly understood. We know remarkably little about end-stage disease, latent infections, survival away from the host, interactions among multiple microbes in a plant, and the effects of quantitative virulence factors. While no thoughtful researcher would dispute the effectiveness of reductionist experiments, we propose that this approach be combined with a broader perspective that includes the ecology, histopathology, and community population biology of phytopathogenic bacteria. We offer examples of exciting recent discoveries resulting from this natural history-based approach. In particular, in situ studies using biologically realistic inoculation followed by analyses with microscopy, gene expression profiling, community analyses, or application of key computational tools can offer new insights into old questions. Research that combines cutting-edge tools with a biological perspective is especially lacking on high-impact diseases of subsistence crops. Understanding the biology underlying important practical issues such as copper resistance, eradication from seed and cuttings, and rapid, sensitive detection could be of significant utility. Overall, we endorse a broader biological approach to research on plant pathogenic bacteria.
In response to significant advances in plant bacteriology, researchers can focus in to more deeply understand the discovery, or they can change the subject and turn to important questions that remain poorly understood. This article encourages the second approach by pointing out some underexplored but important aspects of plant pathogenic bacteria. We first discuss considerations that may aid selection of research topics, and then suggest a necessarily incomplete set of specific questions and approaches that promise fresh and productive research. Ideally, our research programs would be designed to reveal fundamental biology of high-impact plant pathogens, leading to useful disease management strategies. All too often our planning instead brings us to the intersection of the feasible, the fundable, and the familiar—hardly a path to novelty. We suggest that those seeking new directions should instead choose a study system that satisfies at least two of the criteria listed in Table I . In particular, research is urgently needed on destructive diseases of key tropical subsistence crops, such as Xanthomonas wilt of banana (Musa spp.) and bacterial blight of cassava (Manihot esculenta). A more widespread focus on research to reduce crop losses offers the additional benefit of increasing stakeholder support for plant bacteriology funding.
New knowledge and methods create opportunities for progress on old questions, and indeed there are few truly new questions. It is humbling to discover that our scientific predecessors thought deeply and usefully about our subject. Perceptive articles and book chapters that were written long before the advent of PubMed can be overlooked in an online search. Readers curious about plant pathogenic bacteria are encouraged to explore the following and other older sources, which describe key research questions that remain unsolved (Smith, 1920
The early years of molecular plant bacteriology explored a wide range of interactions. Conducted without kits, PCR, or commercial DNA sequencing, this research used laborious methods such as screening and characterization of transposon mutants to discover hrp (for host response and pathogenicity) and avr (for avirulence) genes in the interactions between Pseudomonads and bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) plants, dissect the role of cell wall-degrading enzymes in soft-rot enterobacteria, and determine that EPS is key to wilt pathogenesis (Staskawicz et al., 1984
Reductionist experiments are powerful, but the lure of their yes/no results can keep us from doing discovery experiments that may be complicated and messy but also more biologically realistic and practically relevant. Familiar examples include studies focusing on single genes rather than multigenic traits, model systems instead of natural hosts, sterile potting mix in place of natural soil, seedlings rather than mature plants, and controlled rather than field environments. Every researcher struggles to balance experimental feasibility with biological meaning, but a convenient and familiar assay can give deceptive results that hide a more interesting truth. For example, He and coworkers found that the phytotoxin coronatine facilitates pathogen entry into leaf mesophyll by causing stomates to open, but this effect was masked if leaves were infiltrated with bacteria and was only detectable when Pseudomonas syringae strains were inoculated onto leaf surfaces (Melotto et al., 2006
Pathologists have traditionally, and understandably, focused on discovering how bacteria incite disease during the early stages of acute pathogenesis. We know much less about the end stages of bacterial pathogenesis, how bacteria escape from dying plants, and the traits needed to grow or persist in free-living states in soil, drainage ditches, dead plant residues, on farm implements, or up in the sky. Some species must colonize seeds, vectors, or alternate hosts; others form lesions or other structures that foster bacterial spread in the environment. Although most plant pathogenic bacteria do not form spores, they often survive extremes of humidity and persist for years; how? There are fascinating biological questions in these understudied life stages, which can be found in the disease cycle of almost every plant pathogenic bacterium. Figure 1 provides only one of many illustrative examples. There are significant opportunities for improved disease control if any stage of the disease cycle can be disrupted.
Detection methods such as real-time PCR, GFP tags, and immunofluorescence staining microscopy are sensitive enough to study small populations in situ in the rhizosphere, in water, in animals, and on soil particles. We do not know much about associations between plant pathogenic bacteria and native plants, especially the roles of these bacteria in natural ecosystems. The extent of our ignorance is exemplified by the recent discovery that the very well-studied soft-rot bacterium Erwinia chrysanthemi (now Dickeya dadantii) has a secret life as an insect pathogen (Grenier et al., 2006
Accumulating evidence suggests the ubiquity in plants of bacterial endophytes, most of which are currently unculturable (Zinniel et al., 2002
The discovery that some plant pathogenic bacteria affect the weather when they are not living on plants (Christner et al., 2008
Biological interactions are dynamic, with balances sometimes tipping sharply when thresholds in signaling or population levels are reached. Environmental variability (humidity, temperature, drought stress) has significant but largely unknown effects on plant-bacterial interactions. Metagenomics have shown us that rhizospheres and leaf surfaces support complex communities of microbes that are mostly uncultured and undescribed (Riesenfeld et al., 2004
Natural history remains a powerful form of biology, as everyone who is annotating genomes can testify. It is becoming clear that genomics and even gene expression studies cannot deliver the specific insights offered by using microscopy to follow bacterial colonization and pathogenesis in real time. High-quality histopathology is time consuming and technically demanding, but it is highly rewarding to use superior modern instruments to observe specifically labeled cells, structures, or proteins in situ. This approach has been very productive in studies of animal pathogenesis but is underused by plant microbiologists (but see Newman et al., 2003
Annotation reinforces the conventional wisdom because we can confidently identify only those genes that have been previously studied. The rapidly expanding set of genomes for plant pathogenic bacteria can be combined with powerful bioinformatics tools and a biologist's perspective to generate some fresh hypotheses about the many conserved hypothetical proteins crowding our genome databases. For example, straightforward experiments would be suggested by the discovery that a particular conserved gene of unknown function is present in genomes of all insect-transmitted bacteria, no matter how distantly related, but absent from genomes of closely related species transmitted by other means. Similar analyses can find conserved hypothetical proteins specific to epiphytes, xylem dwellers, bacteria attacking only monocots, etc. An analysis of plant pathogenic Xanthomonas genomes used this idea to identify genes potentially linked to infecting specific tissues (Lu et al., 2008
Microarray-based profiling of pathogen gene expression under various conditions is advancing at a rapid pace, although more expression studies are needed in biologically relevant in planta settings. Gene expression profiling can be coupled with laser capture microdissection or other creative extraction methods so that specific microbial subpopulations (or specific host cells or tissues) can be analyzed with increased sensitivity. In vivo expression technology screens and their offshoots (Osbourn et al., 1987
Many of the same signal molecules are perceived by both plants and microbes. This is not surprising since angiosperms arose about 3 billion years after bacteria, and evolved in the constant presence of microbial signaling. Similar signal molecules are produced by a wide range of bacteria and all bacterial plant pathogens are likely to be exposed to plant signal molecules, yet the roles of these signals on plants and bacteria has only been explored in a handful of pathosystems and even fewer have been placed into signal networks (Brencic and Winans, 2005
Aspects of small molecule signaling and defense studied in other areas of microbiology have not yet made large impacts on plant pathology. In some cases, signaling properties of classes of molecules, such as flavonoids, have been described in detail by those examining beneficial microbes such as Rhizobium (Gibson et al., 2008
Plants face multiple pathogens and there are hints that some pathogens function best in pairs, but this area has been little explored. An almost completely unexamined example is soft-rot disease caused by Clostridium. Clostridium and Pectobacterium species are routinely found together in decaying vegetables and both can cause disease on their own (Pérombelon et al., 1979
Two areas of phytobacteriology that are currently under intensive study are microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs; also called PAMPs) and type III secretion system-dependent effector proteins. Our primary message is to encourage research beyond these heavily studied topics, but even these topics contain underexplored niches concerning the real-world relevance of MAMPs and effectors (Bent and Mackey, 2007 Several major problems in the management of bacterial plant diseases could be solved with a better understanding of the underlying biology. A few examples are given below.
Some core methods for control of bacterial diseases, such as copper or streptomycin sprays, lose their utility because pathogens become resistant, often through acquisition of broad host-range transmissible plasmids from other bacteria. Can anything be done to prevent this? Alternatively, β-lactamase inhibitors like clavulanic acid are used clinically to make amoxicillin work against resistant strains (Payne et al., 1994
Seed treatments such as hot water treatments are one of the best interventions available to disrupt bacterial diseases, but they are only effective in some pathosystems (Leben and Sleesman, 1981
Research seems to have dwindled on the previous two problems, but ongoing efforts seek improved detection methods for bacteria on seeds and cuttings (Gitaitis and Walcott, 2007 We conclude by offering a few specific suggestions to increase exploration of new niches.
Understandably, funding agencies often enlist researchers who currently receive funding from that agency to serve on their proposal review panels. However, this practice may reinforce a narrow vision of research excellence. To increase research on underexplored niches, some panel managers have successfully broadened their portfolio by recruiting panelists from outside of their funded community, including researchers from significantly different disciplines as well as recent applicants whose unfunded proposals were regarded as highly creative or novel.
Consciously multidisciplinary training will increase the likelihood that our students and postdoctoral researchers become scientists who think broadly and are eager to work with partners who have a very different perspective or toolset. Professors can encourage this by broadening coverage in their own courses and modeling broad collaboration in their research programs. Students and postdocs can generate breadth through their course selections, their reading, meeting, and seminar choices, and through active pursuit of collaborative research.
Finally, we will not succeed in these underexplored niches if molecular biology lab rats do not work with colleagues who spend time in the field. Scientists with a strong laboratory orientation can benefit enormously from the biological expertise and thoughtful perspectives of field pathologists. Find the time to chat regularly with these colleagues. Moreover, the ongoing loss of extension agents and applied plant pathologists through retirements and funding cuts imperils this entire field of study. Relevant insights from natural and agricultural environments will dry up if we do not give our strongest moral and practical support to scientists with expertise in field biology.
The authors acknowledge helpful comments from Patricia McManus and support from the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Received April 15, 2009; accepted June 23, 2009; published June 26, 2009.
The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Caitilyn Allen (cza{at}plantpath.wisc.edu). www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.109.140004 * Corresponding author; e-mail cza{at}plantpath.wisc.edu.
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