Mechanisms of NB-LRR disease resistance protein function

植物是各种微生物的肥沃营养来源。其中许多会降低植物的适合度和生产力，因此是病原体。植物病原体破坏农作物，特别是在发展中国家，昂贵的杀菌剂和杀虫剂(通常是不可持续的)超出了大多数农民的经济承受能力。植物病害造成的产量损失也是“水分损失”，因为这种资源通常是在疾病摧毁作物之前投资的。因此，通过植物免疫系统的合理配置，成功地防治植物病害，将直接为人类和环境健康做出贡献，并节省大量淡水。植物免疫系统使用一系列蛋白质来识别入侵微生物的蛋白质。关键的植物蛋白质被称为“抗病受体”，缩写为NLR，这反映了它们特定的蛋白质结构域。NLR对病原体分子的识别导致了成功的免疫反应，阻止了病原体的生长。100多年来，植物育种者在不知不觉中操纵了NLR，我们所有的农作物都依赖他们的NLR来保护自己免受微生物病原体的侵袭。然而，由于微生物的世代时间很短，而作物相比之下非常慢，微生物进化得更快，它们可以避开植物育种者预测疾病如何出现的缓慢工作。研究人员研究了NLR蛋白被激活的确切机制，以及这种激活的后果。他们的工作使用基因组学、遗传学、生物化学和细胞生物学来了解这些重要蛋白质是如何工作的。他们的研究将带来更好的工具，用来设计更有效的植物免疫受体和反应，以保护我们的粮食安全。同样，动物NLR受体对宿主中的微生物信号做出反应，从海胆到人类都是如此。因此，拟议的研究项目的最广泛影响将大大促进对作物物种和人类健康的翻译。

Plants are fertile sources of nutrients for a variety of microbes. Many of these reduce plant fitness and productivity, and hence are pathogens. Plant pathogens devastate crops, particularly in developing areas where expensive (and often unsustainable) fungicides and pesticides are beyond the economic reach of most farmers. Yield losses due to plant disease are also 'water losses', since that resource is often invested before disease decimates a crop. Hence, successfully combating plant diseases through rational deployment of the plant immune system will contribute directly to human and environmental health, and save lots of fresh water. The plant immune system uses a family of proteins to recognize the proteins of invasive microbes. The key plant proteins are called 'disease resistance receptors' and have the acronym NLR, which reflects their particular set of protein domains. Recognition of pathogen molecules by NLRs results in a successful immune response that halts pathogen growth. Plant breeders have unknowingly manipulated NLRs for over 100 years, and all of our crop plants rely on their set of NLRs to protect them from microbial pathogens. However, because the generation times of microbes are very short, and crops by contrast very slow, microbes evolve faster and they can evade the slow work of plant breeders to anticipate how diseases will emerge. The investigators study the precise mechanisms by which NLR proteins are activated, and the consequences of that activation. Their work uses genomics, genetics, biochemistry and cell biology to understand how these important proteins work. Their research will lead to better tools with which to design more efficient plant immune receptors and responses to protect our food security. Similarly, animal NLR receptors respond to microbial signals in hosts as diverse as sea urchins and humans. Hence, the broadest impacts of the proposed research project will significantly inform translation to crop species and to human health.