ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Pathogen Interactions
This article is part of the Research TopicInvestigating the Elements of Plant Defense Mechanisms Within Plant Immune Responses Against Pathogens, Volume IIView all 13 articles
Molecular profiling of PYL gene family in sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) and BvPYL2/3 involved in ABA accumulation confers enhanced resistance to CLS (Cercospora Leaf Spot)
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Modern Agriculture and Ecological Environment, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China
- 2Sugar Beet Engineering Research Center of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin 150080, harbin, China
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Cercospora leaf spot (CLS), caused by Cercospora beticola, is a major threat to sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) production globally. While abscisic acid (ABA) signaling mediates plant defense responses, the specific roles of ABA receptors (PYR/PYL/RCAR) in sugar beet resistance to CLS remain unclear. In this study, 10 BvPYL genes were identified from the sugar beet genome and functionally characterized. Transcriptome profiling showed that BvPYL2 displayed a stable constitutive expression profile in resistant and susceptible lines during infection, in contrast to BvPYL3, whose expression was marked by a significant decrease over the disease progression. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that both BvPYL2 and BvPYL3 localize to the plasma membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus. Yeast two-hybrid assays demonstrated that BvPYL2 constitutively interacts with the negative regulator BvPP2C37, while BvPYL3 forms an ABA-dependent complex with BvPP2C37. Physiological observations showed that resistant plants achieved ABA-mediated stomatal closure to restrict pathogen entry, whereas susceptible plants main-tained prolonged stomatal opening, facilitating infection. These results reveal two distinct regulatory mechanisms: BvPYL2 func-tions through constitutive interaction with BvPP2C37, and BvPYL3 operates via ABA-dependent signaling, both contributing to stomatal immunity against CLS. This study elucidates novel ABA-mediated defense mechanisms in sugar beet and identifies BvPYL2 and BvPYL3 as promising targets for breeding CLS-resistant germplasm.
Keywords: Beta vulgaris, Cercospora leaf spot, PYL, ABA signaling, Resistance mechanism
Received: 28 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Zhao, Li and Ding. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guangzhou Ding
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