Effector-Triggered Immunity: From Pathogen Perception to Robust Defense

• Published in: Annual review of plant biology Vol. 66; no. 1; pp. 487 - 511
• Main Authors: Cui, Haitao, Tsuda, Kenichi, Parker, Jane E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Annual Reviews 29-04-2015; Annual Reviews, Inc
• Subjects: Cells; Chromatin; defense networks; Disease Resistance; disease resistance signaling; Flowers & plants; Immunity, Innate; NLR receptors; Pathogens; Plant Diseases; Plant Proteins - metabolism; plant-pathogen coevolution; Plants - metabolism; Signal Transduction; transcriptional reprogramming; Virulence Factors; NLR receptors; defense networks; plant-pathogen coevolution; disease resistance signaling; transcriptional reprogramming
• ISSN: 1543-5008; 1545-2123
• DOI: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-050213-040012

In plant innate immunity, individual cells have the capacity to sense and respond to pathogen attack. Intracellular recognition mechanisms have evolved to intercept perturbations by pathogen virulence factors (effectors) early in host infection and convert it to rapid defense. One key to resistance success is a polymorphic family of intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich-repeat (NLR) receptors that detect effector interference in different parts of the cell. Effector-activated NLRs connect, in various ways, to a conserved basal resistance network in order to transcriptionally boost defense programs. Effector-triggered immunity displays remarkable robustness against pathogen disturbance, in part by employing compensatory mechanisms within the defense network. Also, the mobility of some NLRs and coordination of resistance pathways across cell compartments provides flexibility to fine-tune immune outputs. Furthermore, a number of NLRs function close to the nuclear chromatin by balancing actions of defense-repressing and defense-activating transcription factors to program cells dynamically for effective disease resistance.