Identif ication of a hypersensitive response core peptide of HrpZ and its role in increasing grape downy mildew resistance

Harpins play a key role in inducing disease resistance in crops,and identifying their core functional regions and establishing a system for their efficient expression would be very valuable.In this study,large amounts of soluble fusion proteins of harpin HrpZ and its subpeptides were obtained via the optimized induction conditions(28℃ with 0.5 mmol·L^(-1) IPTG for 6 h)in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3).Hypersensitive response(HR)assays demonstrated that the C-terminal 66 aa of HrpZ(HrpZ_C_2_2)elicited a strong HR in tobacco(Nicotiana benthamiana)and grape(Flame Seedless)leaves.Additionally,treatment with HrpZ,and particularly HrpZ_C_2_2,significantly reduced the disease incidence and severity index of field vine leaves and those inoculated with downy mildew.The determination of the physiological parameters indicated that HrpZ,and especially HrpZ_C_2_2,improved the photosynthesis-and chlorophyll fluorescence-related parameters,enhanced the activity of defense-related enzymes,including SOD,POD,CAT and PAL,and increased the H_(2)O_(2) level.Collectively,we efficiently expressed a core peptide of HrpZ and elucidated its strong ability to elicit a HR and resistance to downy mildew.This research provides insight into understanding the structure and function of HrpZ and will advance the application of HrpZ_C_2_2 to increase the resistance of grapevine to downy mildew.