FERONIA receptor kinase contributes to plant immunity by suppressing jasmonic acid signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana (Curr. Biol. – $)

Receptor-like kinase FERONIA plays important role in the regulation of plant growth as well as interactions with the environment. In order to understand how FER affects plant growth Guo et al. examined global transcriptome changes in fer mutant. The authors observed that genes up-regulated by stress hormones, including jasmonic (JA) and abscisic acid (ABA), were also highly expressed in fer mutant. Constitutive activation of JA resulted in higher pathogen susceptibility of  fer, which was partially suppressed in myc2 fer mutant. FER was observed to interact and phosphorylate MYC2, leading to MYC2 destabilization and increased plant immunity. The interaction between FER and its peptide ligand RALF23 was observed to have a negative effect on plant growth and immunity by stabilization of MYC2. (Summary by Magdalena Julkowska) Curr. Biol. 10.1016/j.cub.2018.07.078