Cucumber Mildew Resistance Locus O Interacts with Calmodulin and Regulates Plant Cell Death Associated with Plant Immunity

Pathogen-induced cell death is closely related to plant disease susceptibility and resistance. The cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) mildew resistance locus O (CsMLO1) and calmodulin (CsCaM3) genes, as molecular components, are linked to nonhost resistance and hypersensitive cell death. In this study, we demonstrate that CsMLO1 interacts with CsCaM3 via yeast two-hybrid, firefly luciferase (LUC) complementation and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) experiments. A subcellular localization analysis of green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion reveals that CsCaM3 is transferred from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane in Nicotiana benthamiana, and CsCaM3 green fluorescence is significantly attenuated via the coexpression of CsMLO1 and CsCaM3. CsMLO1 negatively regulates CsCaM3 expression in transiently transformed cucumbers, and hypersensitive cell death is disrupted by CsCaM3 and/or CsMLO1 expression under Corynespora cassiicola infection. Additionally, CsMLO1 silencing significantly enhances the expression of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-related genes (CsPO1, CsRbohD, and CsRbohF), defense marker genes (CsPR1 and CsPR3) and callose deposition-related gene (CsGSL) in infected cucumbers. These results suggest that the interaction of CsMLO1 with CsCaM3 may act as a cell death regulator associated with plant immunity and disease.