TaATG8 is involved in the response to abiotic stresses and powder mildew in Arabidopsis

Abstract

Abstract Autophagy is a major degradation process of cytoplasmic components in eukaryotes, and executes bulk and selective degradation of targeted cargos. A set of autophagy-related (ATG) proteins participate in various stages of the autophagic process. Among ATGs, ubiquitin-like protein ATG8 plays a central role in autophagy. The expression of ATG8 affects many intracellular progresses. Here we report that the amino acid sequence of AtATG8 and TaATG8 protein share a high similarity of 84.03%, we found that TaATG8 involved in the abiotic stresses, such as drought, salt stress and nutrient deficiency. Our results indicated that TaATG8 gene participates in resisting against abiotic stresses in the stage of seed germination, seedling and adult. Moreover, TaATG8 plays an important role in the process of Arabidopsis defending against biotic stress caused by the infection of powdery mildew through HR. Hydrogen peroxide acts as an important metabolic product and signaling molecule in the process of TaATG8 resisting to powdery mildew.