2023/06/20 by Jie Zhu, Signe Lolle, Andrea Tang +4 · 1 voice · 8 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Plant Pathogenic Bacteria Studies #Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases #Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112676
openalex publication_date 2023/06/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Plant response to pathogen infection varies within a leaf, yet this heterogeneity is not well resolved. We expose Arabidopsis to Pseudomonas syringae or mock treatment and profile >11,000 individual cells using single-cell RNA sequencing. Integrative analysis of cell populations from both treatments identifies distinct pathogen-responsive cell clusters exhibiting transcriptional responses ranging from immunity to susceptibility. Pseudotime analyses through pathogen infection reveals a continuum of disease progression from an immune to a susceptible state. Confocal imaging of promoter-reporter lines for transcripts enriched in immune cell clusters shows expression surrounding substomatal cavities colonized or in close proximity to bacterial colonies, suggesting that cells within immune clusters represent sites of early pathogen invasion. Susceptibility clusters exhibit more general localization and are highly induced at later stages of infection. Overall, our work shows cellular heterogeneity within an infected leaf and provides insight into plant differential response to infection at a single-cell level.