Mechanisms of pathogen suppression of NLR-mediated immunity

就像人类一样，植物也会生病。它们可以被多种寄生虫感染，如卵菌、真菌、细菌、病毒、线虫和昆虫。但是，和人类一样，植物也有免疫系统，可以帮助它们抵御疾病。它们的第一道防线是抗病基因。其中许多基因编码所谓的免疫受体，这是一种检测寄生虫并启动免疫反应的蛋白质。植物基因组可以编码50到1000个免疫受体；其中一些作为单个个体单独工作，而另一些则成对或作为复杂的网络工作。免疫受体进化背后的一个驱动力是基因复制。受体基因复制，然后这两个拷贝可以以不同的方式进化。最初的免疫受体是多任务蛋白质，用于检测寄生虫并触发免疫反应。基因复制之后，进化导致免疫受体特化。一些受体专注于病原体检测，失去了自己触发防御反应的能力，而另一些受体则与这些传感器受体协同工作，触发免疫反应。本项目将研究植物病原体如何对抗寄主植物的免疫受体网络。我们将重点关注马铃薯疫病病原体疫霉，并确定其抑制触发免疫反应的免疫受体亚群功能的机制。了解植物病原体与其宿主免疫受体之间的相互作用将产生关于决定这些相互作用结果的功能原理的基本知识，这反过来将为研究人员能够利用它们保护农作物免受疾病侵害奠定基础。更好地了解病原体和植物免疫受体之间这些复杂的相互作用是如何运作的，应该为培育能够更好地抵抗疾病的作物植物奠定基础。我们的长期目标是充分详细地了解植物-病原体相互作用的动力学，以提高我们保护植物免受作物病害的能力。

Just like humans, plants get sick. They can be infected by parasites as diverse as oomycetes, fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematode worms and insects. But, also like humans, plants have an immune system that helps them defend against disease. Their first line of defence are disease resistance genes. Many of these genes encode so-called immune receptors, which are proteins that detect parasites and kick-off the immune response.Plant genomes may encode anywhere between 50 and 1000 immune receptors; some of which work solo as singletons, while others operate in pairs or as complex networks. One driving force behind the evolution of immune receptors is gene duplication. Receptor genes duplicate and afterwards the two copies can evolve in different ways. The original immune receptors are multi-tasking proteins that detect parasites and trigger the immune response. Following gene duplication, evolution has led immune receptors to specialize. Some receptors became dedicated to pathogen detection and lost the ability to trigger a defence response on their own, whereas others operate in concert with these sensor receptors to trigger the immune response.This project will study how a plant pathogen counteract an immune receptor network of its host plant. We will focus on the potato blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans and determine the mechanism by which it suppresses the function of the subset of immune receptors that trigger the immune response. Understanding the interplay between plant pathogens and their host's immune receptors would generate fundamental knowledge about the functioning principles that determine the outcomes of these interactions, which in turn would set the stage for researchers to be able to use them to protect agricultural crops from disease.A better understanding of how these complex interactions between pathogens and plant immune receptor operate should set the stage for breeding crop plants that are better able to resist diseases. Our long-term aim is to understand the dynamics of plant-pathogen interactions in sufficient detail to improve our capacity to protect plants against crop diseases.