Pathogens have evolved a suite of effector proteins that are secreted into plants and aid successful colonization. AvrPtoB is a well-conserved effector of pathogenic Pseudomonas syringae strains that targets multiple plant defense-related proteins and is required for pathogen virulence and bacterial growth in plants. Phosphorylation of AvrPtoB in plants is important for its virulence functions, but the […]
Plants balance their efforts on growth and defense depending on the situation. Competitive conditions signaled by the low ratios of red (R) to far-red (FR) light suppress defense responses mediated by the plant hormone jasmonate (JA), presumably for allocating more resources to promote plant growth. Fernández-Milmanda et al. identified the sulfotransferase ST2a as a missing […]
Jasmonate responses are regulated not only by the well-studied pair of the bioactive hormone jasmonoyl-isoleucine (JA-Ile) and the receptor COI1, but also the cyclopentenone OPDA and the JA-Ile precursor dn-OPDA can activate jasmonate signaling. However, the OPDA/dn-OPDA signaling and their physiological roles are not fully understood. To dissect the COI1-independent OPDA/dn-OPDA responses, Monte, Kneeshaw, et […]
Hybrid necrosis occurs when the progeny of a cross between two different plants show widespread cell death. It can be caused by autoactivation of nucleotide-binding and leucine rich repeat domain (NLR) proteins, intracellular immune receptors that play a central role in plant resistance to diverse pathogens. Li et al. showed that hybrid necrosis in the […]
Successful plant pathogens produce a suite of small molecules called effectors that are injected into plant cells and perturb plant defense. As a counter defense, plants have evolved intracellular receptors (called NLRs; nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat) that detect specific effectors and mount strong effector-triggered immunity (ETI). Compared with an immense diversity of bacteria and their […]
Plants are surrounded by diverse microbes and must avoid mounting an immune response against innocuous microbes, while properly activating defense against invading pathogens. As the initial plant-microbe contacts happen in a limited number of cells, understanding spatially-resolved plant immune responses at the single cell level is important. Zhou et al. used highly sensitive markers to […]