Two Arabidopsis srfr (suppressor of rps4-RLD) mutants exhibit avrRps4-specific disease resistance independent of RPS4

RPS4 specifies the Arabidopsis disease resistance response to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato expressing avrRps4 and was cloned based on the identification of RLD as a naturally occurring susceptible accession. To dissect the molecular and genetic basis of disease resistance, we used a genetic approach to identify suppressor mutations that reactivate the avrRps4-triggered defense response in RLD. In this report, we describe two non-allelic srfr (suppressor of rps4-RLD) mutants, srfr1 and srfr3, that were susceptible to virulent P. syringae pv. tomato strain DC3000, but resistant to DC3000 expressing avrRps4. In quantitative bacterial growth assays, growth of DC3000 was similar in wild-type control and both mutant lines, indicating that basal resistance was not enhanced in srfr1 and srfr3. Growth of DC3000 (avrRps4) was approximately 30-fold lower in srfr1 and srfr3 than in RLD, but intermediate compared with fully resistant Col-0 and transgenic RLD containing RPS4-Col. The srfr1 and srfr3 mutants did not develop spontaneous lesions prior to inoculation or constitutively express the pathogenesis-related gene PR-1. Therefore, srfr1 and srfr3 constitute novel avr-specific mutants that differ from previously described Arabidopsis mutants with elevated disease resistance. The srfr1 and srfr3 mutations were recessive, and both mapped to the bottom of chromosome IV. Genetic analysis indicated that resistance in srfr1 and srfr3 was independent of the rps4-RLD allele, but dependent on a second gene in RLD. We propose that SRFR1 and SRFR3 are negative regulators of avrRps4-triggered gene-for-gene disease resistance.