Ser360 and Ser364 in the Kinase Domain of Tomato SIMAPKKKα are Critical for Programmed Cell Death Associated with Plant Immunity

$SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$, a tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase, is a positive regulator of Pto-mediated effector-triggered immunity, which elicits programmed cell death (PCD) in plants. In this study, we examined whether putative phosphorylation sites in the conserved activation segment of the $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ kinase domain are critical for eliciting PCD. Three amino acids, $threonine^{353}$, $serine^{360}$ ($Ser^{360}$), or $serine^{364}$ ($Ser^{364}$), in the conserved activation segment of $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ kinase domain were substituted to alanine (T353A, S360A, or S364A), and these variants were transiently expressed in tomato and Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Two alanine substitutions, S360A and S364A, completely abolished $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ PCD-eliciting activity in both plants, while T353A substitution did not affect its PCD-eliciting activity. $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ wild type and variant proteins accumulated to similar levels in plant leaves. However, $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ protein with the largest size was missed when either S360A or S364A substitutions were expressed, whereas proteins with the smaller masses were more accumulated than those of full-length of $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ and T353A. These results suggest that phosphorylation of $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ at $Ser^{360}$ and $Ser^{364}$ is critical for PCD elicitation in plants.