POWERDRESS positively regulates systemic acquired resistance in Arabidopsis

Key message PWR, an epigenetic regulator, and PIF4, a transcription factor coordinately regulate both local resistance and systemic acquired resistance in Arabidopsis . Abstract A plant that gets infected once becomes resistant to subsequent infections through the development of systemic acquired resistance (SAR). Primary-infected tissues generate mobile signals that travel to systemic tissues and cause epigenetic changes associated with the SAR activation. Epigenetic regulators and the process of infection memory development are largely obscure for plants. POWERDRESS (PWR), a SANT domain-containing histone deacetylation (HDAC) promoting gene, is essential for thermomorphogenesis. Here we show that PWR is required for the SAR activation in Arabidopsis. The pwr mutants in Ler and Col-0 background possess normal local resistance but are defective in SAR. PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) genetically interacts with PWR for flowering and thermomorphogenesis and is a negative regulator of basal immunity. We found a cooperative function for suppressing basal immunity and SAR activation by PIF4 and PWR, respectively. PWR promotes the expression of SA biosynthesis genes and the accumulation of SA in the systemic tissues. RSI1/FLD, which influences histone methylation and acetylation, is essential to infection memory development in Arabidopsis. Our results show that PWR and RSI1 positively regulate each other's expression. Exogenous application of HDAC inhibitor sodium butyrate abolishes SAR-mediated SA accumulation, expression of PR1 gene, and protection against pathogens after challenge inoculation. The results indicate the possibility of the involvement of HDAC activity of PWR in the formation of infection memory development in Arabidopsis.