Sweet revenge: a fungal oligosaccharide takes on plant defense responses
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellChandrasekar, Wanke, Wawra and co-workers discover how fungal cell surface polysaccharides assist in evading hostile plant immune responses.
https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac114
By Alan Wanke1 and Pia Saake2 Alga Zuccaro2
1 Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United…
A link between RNA processing and plant immunity
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellPeng, D. Guo, Y. Guo, et al.
Shui Wang, College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
Background: Immune receptors recognize invading microorganisms and activate immune responses. There are two types of immune systems, innate immunity and adaptive immunity. In animals,…
A chromatin remodeler: its role as transcriptional repressor in plant immunity
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellKang et al. (2022) show that Arabidopsis CHROMATIN REMODELING 19 represses transcription and functions in plant defenses against pathogens. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab318
by Huijia Kang and Yan Zhu, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University.
Background: Plants induce defenses in response…
An N-terminally truncated NLR is functional
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellWu et al. uncover the unexpected role of the truncated NLR NRG1C in negatively regulating plant immunity by antagonizing its full-length NRG1 neighbors.
Background: Plants utilize sophisticated innate immune systems to fight against pathogens. Their genomes encode abundant immune receptors to detect…
Robust transcriptional indicators of immune cell death revealed by spatio-temporal transcriptome analyses (Mol Plant)
Plant Science Research WeeklyMany plants trigger a form of cell death, known as the hypersensitive response (HR), immediately upon pathogen recognition. To minimize damage to the plant, this cell death must be highly localized to the site of attack, while more distal cells survive and activate other immune responses. However, the…
Arabidopsis CHROMATIN REMODELING 19 acts as a transcriptional repressor and contributes to plant pathogen resistance (Plant Cell)
Plant Science Research WeeklyChromatin remodellers are highly conserved eukaryotic proteins with regulatory roles in various aspects of DNA metabolism including DNA repair, gene expression and mitosis. Here, Kang et al. examine the function of the CHROMATIN REMODELLING19 (CHR19) in Arabidopsis thaliana. Using two T-DNA insertion…
Serendipity: Story of breeding dual resistance (Nature Comms)
Plant Science Research WeeklyHow would you feel if you developed a plant that is tolerant to a particular stress stimulus and found out that it can also tolerate another stress? Bettgenhaeuser and found that this happened when plant breeders developed barley varieties resistant to the powdery mildew disease (caused by the fungal…
MAP kinase cascade acts as a hub to decide the ways to fight infection (Sci. Adv.)
Plant Science Research WeeklyMuch of our understanding of plant immunity comes from studies of pathogens that infect mesophyll tissues, (e.g., Pseudomonas syringae). However, there are many pathogens that specifically invade vascular tissues (e.g., Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae; Xoo), which causes rice bacterial blight. In a recent…
Review. The complex zigzagging in the plant immune system (Plant Cell)
Plant Science Research WeeklyI remember when I joined my PhD lab, the first article I was recommanded was a review by Jones and Dangl (2006) titled “The plant immune system”. Even today it remains the first article given to newbies in the lab. But the field has progressed way ahead in the more than fifteen years since that article…