Plant NLR immunity activation and execution: a biochemical perspective

Plants deploy cell-surface and intracellular receptors to detect pathogen attack and trigger innate immune responses. Inside host cells, families of nucleotide-binding/leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins serve as pathogen sensors or downstream mediators of immune defence outputs and cell death, which prevent disease. Established genetic underpinnings of NLR-mediated immunity revealed various strategies plants adopt to combat rapidly evolving microbial pathogens. The molecular mechanisms of NLR activation and signal transmission to components controlling immunity execution were less clear. Here, we review recent protein structural and biochemical insights to plant NLR sensor and signalling functions. When put together, the data show how different NLR families, whether sensors or signal transducers, converge on nucleotide-based second messengers and cellular calcium to confer immunity. Although pathogen-activated NLRs in plants engage plant-specific machineries to promote defence, comparisons with mammalian NLR immune receptor counterparts highlight some shared working principles for NLR immunity across kingdoms.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  Open Biology

• Publication date

  2024-01-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1098/rsob.230387PMID 38262605PMCID 10805603
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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