Sulfonamides identified as plant immune-priming compounds in high-throughput chemical screening increase disease resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana.

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Noutoshi Y, Ikeda M, Saito T, Osada H, Shirasu K

Sulfonamides identified as plant immune-priming compounds in high-throughput chemical screening increase disease resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Front Plant Sci. 2012 Oct 31;3:245. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2012.00245. eCollection 2012.

PubMed ID

23118736 [ View in PubMed

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Abstract

Plant activators are agrochemicals that protect crops from diseases by activating the plant immune system. To isolate lead compounds for use as practical plant activators, we screened two different chemical libraries composed of various bioactive substances by using an established screening procedure that can selectively identify immune-priming compounds. We identified and characterized a group of sulfonamide compounds - sulfameter, sulfamethoxypyridazine, sulfabenzamide, and sulfachloropyridazine - among the various isolated candidate molecules. These sulfonamide compounds enhanced the avirulent Pseudomonas-induced cell death of Arabidopsis suspension cell cultures and increased disease resistance in Arabidopsis plants against both avirulent and virulent strains of the bacterium. These compounds did not prevent the growth of pathogenic bacteria in minimal liquid media at 200 muM. They also did not induce the expression of defense-related genes in Arabidopsis seedlings, at least not at 24 and 48 h after treatment, suggesting that they do not act as salicylic acid analogs. In addition, although sulfonamides are known to be folate biosynthesis inhibitors, the application of folate did not restore the potentiation effects of the sulfonamides on pathogen-induced cell death. Our data suggest that sulfonamides potentiate Arabidopsis disease resistance by their novel chemical properties.

DrugBank Data that Cites this Article

Drug Targets

Drug	Target	Kind	Organism	Pharmacological Action	Actions
Sulfameter	Dihydropteroate synthase	Protein	Escherichia coli (strain K12)	Yes	Inhibitor	Details