A cysteine-rich receptor-like protein kinase CaCKR5 modulates immune response against Ralstonia solanacearum infection in pepper

BACKGROUND: Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs) represent a large subfamily of receptor-like kinases and play vital roles in diverse physiological processes in regulating plant growth and development. RESULTS: CaCRK5 transcripts were induced in pepper upon the infection of Ralstonia solanacearum and treatment with salicylic acid. The fusions between CaCRK5 and green fluorescence protein were targeted to the plasma membrane. Suppression of CaCRK5 via virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) made pepper plants significantly susceptible to R. solanacearum infection, which was accompanied with decreased expression of defense related genes CaPR1, CaSAR8.2, CaDEF1 and CaACO1. Overexpression of CaCRK5 increased resistance against R. solanacearum in Nicotiana benthamiana. Furthermore, electrophoretic mobility shift assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that a homeodomain zipper I protein CaHDZ27 can active the expression of CaCRK5 through directly binding to its promoter. Yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) analyses suggested that CaCRK5 heterodimerized with the homologous member CaCRK6 on the plasma membrane. CONCLUSIONS: Our data revealed that CaCRK5 played a positive role in regulating immune responses against R. solanacearum infection in pepper. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-021-03150-y.