Abstract
Cooperation between receptors from the nucleotide-binding, leucine-rich repeats (NLR) superfamily is important for intracellular activation of immune responses. NLRs can function in pairs that, upon pathogen recognition, trigger hypersensitive cell death and stop pathogen invasion. Natural selection drives specialization of host immune receptors towards an optimal response, whilst keeping a tight regulation of immunity in the absence of pathogens. However, the molecular basis of co-adaptation and specialization between paired NLRs remains largely unknown. Here, we describe functional specialization in alleles of the rice NLR pair Pik that confers resistance to strains of the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae harbouring AVR-Pik effectors. We revealed that matching pairs of allelic Pik NLRs mount effective immune responses, whereas mismatched pairs lead to autoimmune phenotypes, a hallmark of hybrid necrosis in both natural and domesticated plant populations. We further showed that allelic specialization is largely underpinned by a single amino acid polymorphism that determines preferential association between matching pairs of Pik NLRs. These results provide a framework for how functionally linked immune receptors undergo co-adaptation to provide an effective and regulated immune response against pathogens. Understanding the molecular constraints that shape paired NLR evolution has implications beyond plant immunity given that hybrid necrosis can drive reproductive isolation.
Highlights
Pathogens use an array of molecules, termed effectors, to successfully colonize hosts (Win et al, 2012)
A coevolved Pik NLR pair is required for efficient cell death response to AVR-Pik 143 effectors in N. benthamiana
Pikm originated in the Chinese Japonica cultivar Hokushi Tami (Kiyosawa, 1978) while Pikp originated in the Indica cultivar Pusur in Pakistan (Kiyosawa, 1969)
Summary
Pathogens use an array of molecules, termed effectors, to successfully colonize hosts (Win et al, 2012). NLRs act as nucleotide operated switches, exchanging ADP for ATP (Bernoux et al, 2016; Tameling et al, 2002; Wang et al, 2019b; Williams et al, 2011), and oligomerise into supramolecular signalling platforms (Hu et al, 2015; Ma et al, 2020; Martin et al, 2020; Sharif et al, 2019; Tenthorey et al, 2017; Wang et al, 2019a; Zhang et al, 2015) This leads to immune responses, including programmed cell death, that restrict pathogen growth. These domains can be derived from pathogen host targets that act as sensor domains within NLRs by binding pathogen effectors (Bialas et al, 2018; Cesari et al, 2014a; Maidment et al, 2021; Oikawa et al, 2020)
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