Mutations at the Serine Hydroxymethyltransferase Impact Its Interaction with a Soluble NSF Attachment Protein and a Pathogenesis-Related Protein in Soybean

Resistance to soybean cyst nematodes (SCN) in “Peking-type” resistance is bigenic, requiring <i>Rhg4-a</i> and <i>rhg1-a</i>. <i>Rhg4-a</i> encodes a serine hydroxymethyltransferase (GmSHMT08) and <i>rhg1-a</i> encodes a soluble NSF attachment protein (GmSNAP18). Recently, it has been shown that a pathogenesis-related protein, GmPR08-Bet VI, potentiates the interaction between GmSHMT08 and GmSNAP18. Mutational analysis using spontaneously occurring and ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-induced mutations was carried out to increase our knowledge of the interacting GmSHMT08/GmSNAP18/GmPR08-Bet VI multi-protein complex. Mutations affecting the GmSHMT08 protein structure (dimerization and tetramerization) and interaction sites with GmSNAP18 and GmPR08-Bet VI proteins were found to impact the multi-protein complex. Interestingly, mutations affecting the PLP/THF substrate binding and catalysis did not affect the multi-protein complex, although they resulted in increased susceptibility to SCN. Most importantly, GmSHMT08 and GmSNAP18 from PI88788 were shown to interact within the cell, being potentiated in the presence of GmPR08-Bet VI. In addition, we have shown the presence of incompatibility between the GmSNAP18 (<i>rhg1-b</i>) of PI88788 and GmSHMT08 (<i>Rhg4-a</i>) from Peking. Components of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) pathway were shown to be induced in the SCN incompatible reaction and were mapped to QTLs for resistance to SCN using different mapping populations.