A bacterial cysteine protease effector protein interferes with photosynthesis to suppress plant innate immune responses

Summary The bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato DC3000 suppresses plant innate immunity with effector proteins injected by a type III secre- tion system (T3SS). The cysteine protease effector HopN1, which reduces the ability of DC3000 to elicit programmed cell death in non-host tobacco, was found to also suppress the production of defence-associated reactive oxygen species (ROS) and callose when delivered by Pseudomonas fluo- rescens heterologously expressing a P. syringae T3SS. Purified His6-tagged HopN1 was used to identify tomato PsbQ, a member of the oxygen evolving complex of photosystem II (PSII), as an interacting protein. HopN1 localized to chloro- plasts and both degraded PsbQ and inhibited PSII activity in chloroplast preparations, whereas a HopN1D299A non-catalytic mutant lost these abili- ties. Gene silencing of NtPsbQ in tobacco compro- mised ROS production and programmed cell death