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SARM1 (sterile alpha and TIR motif containing 1) is responsible for depletion of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide in its oxidized form (NAD+) during Wallerian degeneration associated with neuropathies. Plant nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) immune receptors recognize pathogen effector proteins and trigger localized cell death to restrict pathogen infection. Both processes depend on closely related Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domains in these proteins, which, as we show, feature self-association-dependent NAD+ cleavage activity associated with cell death signaling. We further show that SARM1 SAM (sterile alpha motif) domains form an octamer essential for axon degeneration that contributes to TIR domain enzymatic activity. The crystal structures of ribose and NADP+ (the oxidized form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate) complexes of SARM1 and plant NLR RUN1 TIR domains, respectively, reveal a conserved substrate binding site. NAD+ cleavage by TIR domains is therefore a conserved feature of animal and plant cell death signaling pathways.

International audience; In nature, plants are constantly exposed to potentially pathogenic microbes such as bacteria, fungi, oomycetes or viruses. However, plants have developed effective immune systems triggering various defence reactions against invading pathogens upon the perception of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs; Dodds and Rathjen, 2010). The recognition of these conserved microbial signatures is ensured by Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs) which also detect plant endogenous molecules released during pathogen invasion, called damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs; Boller and Felix, 2009). Chitin, a fungal cell wall component, is a well-known PAMP that triggers defence responses in many mammal and plant species. The aim of the study was to determine the effects of chito-oligosaccharides on grapevine’s immunity and identify the receptor(s) involved in the perception of chito-oligosaccharides in grapevine. Material and methods Grapevine cells (Vitis vinifera cv Gamay) were cultivated as described in Gauthier et al. (2014). Arabidopsis thaliana plants from wild-type (WT) Columbia (Col-0), mutant and transgenic lines were grown in vitro for two weeks in controlled conditions for defence responses or in jiffy peat pellets in a controlled growth chamber for four weeks for protection assays. Grapevine cells or Arabidopsis plants were treated with water, chitin, chitosan (Elicityl, 0.1 g/l for cells and 1 g/l for plants) or flagelline (10 μM) taken as a positive control. ROS production and cytosolic Ca2+ variations ([Ca2+]cyt) in grapevine cells were performed according to Dubreuil-Maurizi et al. (2010) after elicitor treatments, by measuring the chemiluminescence of luminol for H2O2 production and using apoaequorin expressing cells to detect variations of [Ca2+]cyt. Protein extraction, SDS-PAGE and western blotting for MAPK phosphorylation analysis were carried out as previously described (Trdà et al., 2014). RNA extraction and quantitative real-time PCR were performed using primers for the Highlights • Two Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs) VvLYK1-1 and VvLYK1-2 participate in the signaling of chito-oligosaccharides in grapevine • VvLYK1-1 is involved in powdery mildew resistance amplification of defence marker genes (CHIT4C, STS1-2, PAL, RBOHD, and FRK1). Two days after elicitor treatment, Botrytis cinerea and Plasmopara viticola infections were performed on grapevine plants. For protection assays to Erysiphe necator, leaves were infected, maintained on agar medium in the incubator and then sampled at 0, 4, 8, 12 and 24 hours post inoculation. Results and discussion In grapevine cells, chitin treatment induced a rapid and transient increase in free [Ca2+]cyt that peaked at 2 min but not chitosan, even if the basal level remained higher during the whole experiment. Both chito-oligosaccharides did not trigger any H2O2 production contrary to the flagelline epitope flg-22. Chitin and chitosan treatment induced the phosphorylation of two MAPKs with relative molecular masses of 45 and 49 kDa in grapevine cells but chitosan activated the phosphorylation of these two MAPKs longer than the chitin treatment. The expression of defence marker genes activated by different elicitors was then followed by qPCR. Among them, both chito-oligosaccharides induced the expression of four grapevine defence genes encoding an acidic chitinase (CHIT4C), a stilbene synthase (STS1-2), a phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) and a respiratory burst oxidase homolog D (RBOHD), 1 hour post-treatment (hpt). The efficacy of chitin- and chitosan-induced immunity was investigated in Vitis vinifera leaf discs infected by the necrotrophic fungus B. cinerea or with the biotrophic oomycete P. viticola, the causal agents of gray mold and downy mildew, respectively. If chitin pretreatment induced a low but significant resistance against these pathogens, chitosan reduced very significantly the B. cinerea lesion diameter and the P. viticola sporulation. Taken toghether, these results demonstrate that grapevine perceives chitin and chitosan suggesting that at least one PRR for chito-oligosaccharides perception exists. To identify the receptor of chito-oligosaccharides in grapevine, the grapevine family of LysM receptor like kinases was characterised and three proteins, respectively named VvLYK1-1, VvLYK1-2 and VvLYK1-3, showed a close relation to Arabidopsis CERK1/LYK1 (Chitin-Elicitor Receptor Kinase 1) and the rice ortholog CERK1. By functional complementation of the Arabidopsis cerk1/lyk1 mutant, impaired in chitin perception and signalling, we demonstrated that VvLYK1-1 and VvLYK1-2 are involved in the signalling of chito-oligosaccharides in Vitis vinifera. Moreover, VvLYK1-1 plays a key role in basal resistance against the grapevine powdery mildew causal agent E. necator.

International audience; A key aspect of the plant innate immune system is the recognition of invading pathogens. This occurs through plasma membrane localised pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) detecting conserved pathogen signatures, termed pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). In Arabidopsis thaliana CERK1 is a lysin motif receptor-like kinase (LYK), which is involved in the perception of chitin released from invading fungal pathogens. In comparison to the five members of the LYK gene family in Arabidopsis, we have identified ten members of the gene family in grapevine (Vitis vinifera), three of which (VvLYK1-1, VvLYK1-2 & VvLYK1-3) are highly homologous to CERK1. VvLYK1-1:GFP was shown to localise to the plasma membrane. Expression of VvLYK1-1 in the Atcerk1 mutant background restored chitin-induced defense responses as demonstrated by MAPK activation and infection assays with the non-adapted grapevine powdery mildew pathogen, Erysiphe necator. This suggests that VvLYK1-1 plays a key role in PAMP-triggered immunity to powdery mildew in grapevine. The kinase domain of VvLYK1-1 was used as a bait in a yeast two-hybrid screen to search for interacting factors. The yeast two-hybrid screen identified a U-box E3 ubiquitin ligase, which shows high homology to the Arabidopsis PUB13 protein. PUB13 has been previously demonstrated to polyubiquitinate FLS2, the receptor of bacterial flagellin (flg22), and promote flagellin-induced FLS2 endocytosis and subsequent degradation.

Few plant pathogens have had a more profound effect on the evolution of disease management than Erysiphe necator, which causes grapevine powdery mildew. When the pathogen first spread from North America to England in 1845, and onwards to France in 1847, ‘germ theory’ was neither understood among the general populace nor even generally accepted within the scientific community. Louis Pasteur had only recently reported the microbial nature of fermentation, and it would be another 30 years before Robert Koch would publish his proofs of the microbial nature of certain animal diseases. However, within 6 years after the arrival of the pathogen, nearly 6 million grape growers in France were routinely applying sulphur to suppress powdery mildew on nearly 2.5 million hectares of vineyards (Campbell, 2006). The pathogen has remained a focus for disease management efforts ever since. Because of the worldwide importance of the crop and its susceptibility to the disease, and because conventional management with modern, organic fungicides has been compromised on several occasions since 1980 by the evolution of fungicide resistance, there has also been a renewed effort worldwide to explore the pathogen's biology and ecology, its genetics and molecular interactions with host plants, and to refine current and suggest new management strategies. These latter aspects are the subject of our review. Taxonomy: The most widely accepted classification follows. Family Erysiphaceae, Erysiphe necator Schw. [syn. Uncinula necator (Schw.) Burr., E. tuckeri Berk., U. americana Howe and U. spiralis Berk. & Curt; anamorph Oidium tuckeri Berk.]. Erysiphe necator var. ampelopsidis was found on Parthenocissus spp. in North America according to Braun (1987), although later studies revealed isolates whose host range spanned genera, making the application of this taxon somewhat imprecise (Gadoury and Pearson, 1991). The classification of the genera before 1980 was based on features of the mature ascocarp: (i) numbers of asci; and (ii) morphology of the appendages, in particular the appendage tips. The foregoing has been supplanted by phylogeny inferred from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of ribosomal DNA sequences (Saenz and Taylor, 1999), which correlates with conidial ontogeny and morphology (Braun et al., 2002). Host range: The pathogen is obligately parasitic on genera within the Vitaceae, including Vitis, Cissus, Parthenocissus and Ampelopsis (Pearson and Gadoury, 1992). The most economically important host is grapevine (Vitis), particularly the European grape, V. vinifera, which is highly susceptible to powdery mildew. Disease symptoms and signs: In the strictest sense, macroscopically visible mildew colonies are signs of the pathogen rather than symptoms resulting from its infection, but, for convenience, we describe the symptoms and signs together as the collective appearance of colonized host tissues. All green tissues of the host may be infected. Ascospore colonies are most commonly found on the lower surface of the first‐formed leaves near the bark of the vine, and may be accompanied by a similarly shaped chlorotic spot on the upper surface. Young colonies appear whitish and those that have not yet sporulated show a metallic sheen. They are roughly circular, ranging in size from a few millimetres to a centimetre or more in diameter, and can occur singly or in groups that coalesce to cover much of the leaf. Senescent colonies are greyish, and may bear cleistothecia in various stages of development. Dead epidermal cells often subtend the colonized area, as natural mortality in the mildew colony, the use of fungicides, mycoparasites or resistance responses in the leaf result in the deaths of segments of the mildew colony and infected epidermal cells. Severely affected leaves usually senesce, develop necrotic blotches and fall prematurely. Infection of stems initially produces symptoms similar to those on leaves, but colonies on shoots are eventually killed as periderm forms, producing a dark, web‐like scar on the cane (Gadoury et al., 2011). Inflorescences and berries are most susceptible when young, and can become completely coated with whitish mildew. The growth of the berry epidermal tissue stops when severely infected, which may result in splitting as young fruit expand. Berries in a transitional stage between susceptible and resistant (generally between 3 and 4 weeks after anthesis) develop diffuse, nonsporulating mildew colonies only visible under magnification. Diffuse colonies die as berries continue to mature, leaving behind a network of necrotic epidermal cells (Gadoury et al., 2007). Survival over winter as mycelium in buds results in a distinctive foliar symptom. Shoots arising from these buds may be heavily coated with fungal growth, stark white in colour and stand out like white flags in the vine, resulting in the term ‘flag shoots’. More commonly, colonization of a flag shoot is less extensive, and infection of a single leaf, or of leaves on one side of the shoot only, is observed (Gadoury et al., 2011).

Chapitre 8; International audience; The introduction of genes that confer resistance to major grapevine pests and pathogens into the highly susceptible V. vinifera cultivars used for wine production worldwide would be of signifi cant economic and environmental benefi t. The availability of genetic resources for grapevine has led to a dramatic increase in research on the mapping of resistance loci. Often the outcome of this work is the development of markers for marker-assisted selection of new disease-resistant interspecific hybrids. However, positional cloning of these resistance genes offers the possibility to introduce these genes into existing elite wine grape cultivars by grapevine transformation without affecting wine quality which has been a major obstacle in the adoption of hybrid vines generated by classical breeding. Furthermore positional cloning offers the possibility to introduce resistance genes into V. vinifera cultivars from species which cannot be achieved through hybridization. Finally, cloning of resistance genes provides sequence information that can be used to design perfect genetic markers which will maximize the effi ciency of marker assisted selection approaches. This chapter describes the strategy used, and technical challenges encountered, during the mapping and positional cloning of powdery mildew and downy mildew resistance genes from the wild North American grape species Muscadinia rotundifolia.