Abstract
Modern plant breeding relies heavily on the deployment of susceptibility and resistance genes to defend crops against diseases. The expression of these genes is usually regulated by transcription factors including members of the AP2/ERF family. While these factors are a vital component of the plant immune response, little is known of their specific roles in defense against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (Foc TR4) in banana plants. In this study, we discovered that MaERF12, a pathogen-induced ERF in bananas, acts as a resistance gene against Foc TR4. The yeast two-hybrid assays and protein-protein docking analyses verified the interaction between this gene and MaSMG7, which plays a role in nonsense-mediated RNA decay. The transient expression of MaERF12 in Nicotiana benthamiana was found to induce strong cell death, which could be inhibited by MaSMG7 during co-expression. Furthermore, the immunoblot analyses have revealed the potential degradation of MaERF12 by MaSMG7 through the 26S proteasome pathway. These findings demonstrate that MaSMG7 acts as a susceptibility factor and interferes with MaERF12 to facilitate Foc TR4 infection in banana plants. Our study provides novel insights into the biological functions of the MaERF12 as a resistance gene and MaSMG7 as a susceptibility gene in banana plants. Furthermore, the first discovery of interactions between MaERF12 and MaSMG7 could facilitate future research on disease resistance or susceptibility genes for the genetic improvement of bananas.