Immune Receptors and Co-receptors in Antiviral Innate Immunity in Plants.

Plants respond to pathogens using an innate immune system that is broadly divided into PTI (pathogen-associated molecular pattern- or PAMP-triggered immunity) and ETI (effector-triggered immunity). PTI is activated upon perception of PAMPs, conserved motifs derived from pathogens, by surface membrane-anchored pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). To overcome this first line of defense, pathogens release into plant cells effectors that inhibit PTI and activate effector-triggered susceptibility (ETS).

NIK1-mediated translation suppression functions as a plant antiviral immunity mechanism.

Plants and plant pathogens are subject to continuous co-evolutionary pressure for dominance, and the outcomes of these interactions can substantially impact agriculture and food security. In virus-plant interactions, one of the major mechanisms for plant antiviral immunity relies on RNA silencing, which is often suppressed by co-evolving virus suppressors, thus enhancing viral pathogenicity in susceptible hosts. In addition, plants use the nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) domain-containing resistance proteins, which recognize viral effectors to activate effector-triggered immunity in a defence mechanism similar to that employed in non-viral infections.

The molecular chaperone binding protein BiP prevents leaf dehydration-induced cellular homeostasis disruption.

BiP overexpression improves leaf water relations during droughts and delays drought-induced leaf senescence. However, whether BiP controls cellular homeostasis under drought conditions or simply delays dehydration-induced leaf senescence as the primary cause for water stress tolerance remains to be determined. To address this issue, we examined the drought-induced transcriptomes of BiP-overexpressing lines and wild-type (WT) lines under similar leaf water potential (ψw) values.

The endoplasmic reticulum binding protein BiP displays dual function in modulating cell death events.

The binding protein (BiP) has been demonstrated to participate in innate immunity and attenuate endoplasmic reticulum- and osmotic stress-induced cell death. Here, we employed transgenic plants with manipulated levels of BiP to assess whether BiP also controlled developmental and hypersensitive programmed cell death (PCD). Under normal conditions, the BiP-induced transcriptome revealed a robust down-regulation of developmental PCD genes and an up-regulation of the genes involved in hypersensitive PCD triggered by nonhost-pathogen interactions.