Two plant immune branches more intimately connected than previously believed
Published Date: 4/1/2021
Source: phys.org
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 immunity. However, the dichotomy between PTI and ETI has become blurred due to recent discoveries, indicating that responses to PRR receptor signaling and NLR signaling extensively overlap.