Scientists Identify Plant's Defense Mechanism Against Pathogens

Scientists from Wageningen University and Research Center have discovered that RLP-receptors located outside the plant cells play an important role in plant defense and join forces with other proteins present at the same location to warn the plant when a fungus attacks. This finally answers a question that has been haunting several plant scientists around the world for many years. The findings provide new leads for breeding crops with an improved defense against diseases caused by pathogenic microbes.

After purifying an RLP-receptor complex from leaves of tomato plants, Wageningen UR scientists have now discovered that a number of RLP-receptors recruit an RLK-receptor, referred to as SOBIR1, in order to warn the cell for fungal attacks. Switching off the gene for this RLK-receptor cause the RLP-receptors to be non-functional. The scientists have hereby shown that RLP-receptors cannot warn the cell without cooperating with SOBIR1.