Benjamin J. Spears

Phloem is a critical tissue for transport of photosynthates and extracellular signals in vascular plants. However, it also represents an ideal environment for pathogens seeking access to valuable host nutrients. Although many vascular pathogens induce economically relevant crop damage, there is still little known about the mechanisms by which immune signaling operates through the phloem. An existing phosphoproteomic dataset was mined to identify proteins that were both phosphorylated in response to the defense‐elicitor flagellin (flg22) and expressed in vascular cells. A single candidate, OCTOPUS (OPS), is polarly associated with the plasma membrane of sieve element cells and has been characterized as an inhibitor of brassinosteroid insensitive‐2 in promotion of brassinosteroid‐related phytohormone signaling. The observation that OPS is differentially phosphorylated in response to flg22 led us to the examine whether OPS may also regulate flg22‐induced immune signaling. Two independent alleles of ops exhibited enhanced immunity outputs across multiple signaling branches of PAMP‐triggered immunity (PTI), constitutively and in response to flg22 treatment. Together with our observation that interactions between OPS and brassinosteroid insensitive‐2 were disrupted by induction of salicylic acid and depletion of brassinosteriod, these data support a model whereby OPS modulates brassinolide and immune signaling to control downstream responses. We present OPS as a novel addition to the list of proteins with documented roles in PAMP‐PTI signaling. These results further indicate that immune signaling in the phloem may be a significant and unique component of the host detection and response to pathogens in vascular plants.