How Pathogens Block Plants' Ability to Detect Infections

October 21, 2024

Towards enhanced disease resistance by controlling plant factors

An international research group led by the RIKEN CSRS has uncovered, at the molecular level, how highly pathogenic bacteria skillfully evade recognition by plant immune receptors to establish infection.
The research group first searched for factors that form complexes with plant membrane-localized immune receptors and discovered the receptor-like kinase QSK1. Investigating the function of QSK1 revealed that it reduces the amount of immune receptors. Even more interestingly, the pathogenic factor HopF2_Pto from the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pto) DC3000 binds to QSK1, stabilizing it within plant cells and significantly decreasing the amount of immune receptors. Additionally, HopF2_Pto suppressed the expression of phytohormones and their receptors, which are known to enhance immune responses alongside various immune receptors. These results demonstrate that HopF2_Pto  neutralizes the plant's infection detection ability by exploiting QSK1, a factor that diminishes plant immunity.

In QSK1 deficient mutants, immune receptor accumulation is induced, and the function of HopF2_Pto is weakened, resulting in increased resistance to pathogens. This finding is expected to strengthen resistance against pathogens.

Original article

The Plant Cell doi: 10.1093/plcell/koae267

Y. Goto, Y. Kadota, M. Mbengue, J. D Lewis, H. Matsui, N. Maki, B. P. M. Ngou, J. Sklenar, P. Derbyshire, A. Shibata, Y. Ichihashi, D. S. Guttman, H. Nakagami, T. Suzuki, F. L.H. Menke, S. Robatzek, D. Desveaux, C. Zipfel, K. Shirasu,

"Leucine-rich Repeat Receptor Kinase QSK1 Regulates PRR-RBOHD Complex Targeted by Bacterial effector HopF2_Pto".

Contact

Ken Shirasu; Group Director
Yasuhiro Kadota; Senior Research Scientist
Plant Immunity Research Group