Functional diversification of structurally alike NLR proteins in plants

• Published in: Plant science (Limerick) 2018-04, Vol.269, p.85-93
• Main Authors: Chakraborty, Joydeep, Jain, Akansha, Mukherjee, Dibya, Ghosh, Suchismita, Das, Sampa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Decoy; Effector trigerred immunity (ETI); Guardee; Host-Pathogen Interactions - genetics; Host-Pathogen Interactions - immunology; Hypersensitive response (HR); NLR Proteins - genetics; NLR Proteins - immunology; Nucleotide-binding leucine-rich-repeat protein (NLR protein); Plant Immunity; Plants - genetics; Plants - immunology; Reactive oxygen species (ROS)
• ISSN: 0168-9452; 1873-2259
• DOI: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2018.01.008

•NLR proteins are diversified plant immune receptors playing important role in race-specific disease resistance.•NLR proteins confer the recognition of the pathogen derived virulence factors resulting in hyper-immune signaling in plants.•NLR proteins may activate disease resistance signaling pathways both in the nucleus and cytoplasm.•Oligomerization of NLR proteins regulates its pre-and post-activation status. In due course of evolution many pathogens alter their effector molecules to modulate the host plants’ metabolism and immune responses triggered upon proper recognition by the intracellular nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain containing leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins. Likewise, host plants have also evolved with diversified NLR proteins as a survival strategy to win the battle against pathogen invasion. NLR protein indeed detects pathogen derived effector proteins leading to the activation of defense responses associated with programmed cell death (PCD). In this interactive process, genome structure and plasticity play pivotal role in the development of innate immunity. Despite being quite conserved with similar biological functions in all eukaryotes, the intracellular NLR immune receptor proteins happen to be structurally distinct. Recent studies have made progress in identifying transcriptional regulatory complexes activated by NLR proteins. In this review, we attempt to decipher the intracellular NLR proteins mediated surveillance across the evolutionarily diverse taxa, highlighting some of the recent updates on NLR protein compartmentalization, molecular interactions before and after activation along with insights into the finer role of these receptor proteins to combat invading pathogens upon their recognition. Latest information on NLR sensors, helpers and NLR proteins with integrated domains in the context of plant pathogen interactions are also discussed.