Credit: Dr. Kenichi Tsuda
Plant inducible defense starts with the recognition of microbes, which leads to the activation of a complex set of cellular responses. There are many ways to recognize a microbe, and recognition of microbial features by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) outside the cell was long thought to activate the first line of defense: Pattern Triggered Immunity, or PTI. To avoid these defense responses, microbes of all kinds evolved the ability to deliver effector molecules to the plant cell, either directly into the cytoplasm or into the area just outside the cell, where they are taken up into the cytoplasm. Response to these effector molecules was thought to be mediated exclusively by intracellular nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs) which induce Effector Triggered Immunity, or ETI. These two signaling pathways are often thought of as two distinct branches of the plant immune response, with each contributing differently to overall immu
Plant Cell Receptors join Forces to beat Bacterial Invasion
Mar 13 2021 Read 2685 Times
In a study to understand better how plants defend themselves against bacterial pathogens, researchers at The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) have been able to unravel the roles played by two different cell receptors that normally work together to initiate an immune response.
Receptors at the cell surface detect pathogen-derived molecules that accumulate outside plant cells; this activates pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). PTI, however, is suppressed by pathogen-derived effector proteins, that are injected into host cells to enable pathogen growth. In response, the invading effectors can be detected by intracellular receptors in the plant which results in effector-triggered immunity (ETI). Until now, it has not been clear how the defence mechanisms activated by these two distinct perception mechanisms interact.