Mechanisms of NB-LRR disease resistance protein function

NB-LRR抗病蛋白功能机制

• 批准号: 1257373
• 负责人: Jeffery Dangl
• 金额: $ 82.5万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1257373&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mechanisms; NB; LRR; disease; resistance

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.

植物是多种微生物丰富的营养来源。其中许多降低了植物的适应性和生产力，因此是病原体。植物病原体破坏作物，特别是在发展中地区，在这些地区，大多数农民都负担不起昂贵的（而且往往是不可持续的）杀菌剂和杀虫剂。植物病害造成的产量损失也是“水损失”，因为这种资源往往是在病害摧毁作物之前投入的。因此，通过合理部署植物免疫系统，成功地对抗植物病害将直接有助于人类和环境的健康，并节省大量的淡水。植物免疫系统使用一组蛋白质来识别入侵微生物的蛋白质。关键的植物蛋白被称为“抗病受体”，缩写为NLR，这反映了它们特定的蛋白质结构域。NLRs对病原体分子的识别导致成功的免疫反应，阻止病原体生长。100多年来，植物育种家一直在不知情的情况下操纵nlr，我们所有的作物都依赖于他们的nlr来保护它们免受微生物病原体的侵害。然而，由于微生物的产生时间非常短，而作物的生长速度相对较慢，因此微生物进化得更快，它们可以避开植物育种家预测疾病出现方式的缓慢工作。研究人员研究了NLR蛋白被激活的精确机制，以及这种激活的后果。他们利用基因组学、遗传学、生物化学和细胞生物学来了解这些重要蛋白质的工作原理。他们的研究将带来更好的工具，用于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受体对宿主的微生物信号做出反应，如海胆和人类。因此，拟议研究项目的最广泛影响将为作物物种和人类健康的转化提供重要信息。