Intersections between immune responses and morphological regulation in plants

Successful plant pathogens have developed strategies to interfere with the defence mechanisms of their host plants through evolution. Conversely, host plants have evolved systems to counteract pathogen attack. Some pathogens induce pathogenic symptoms on plants that include morphological changes in addition to interference with plant growth. Recent studies, based on molecular biology and genetics using Arabidopsis thaliana, have revealed that factors derived from pathogens can modulate host systems and/or host factors that play important roles in the morphological regulation of host plants. Other reports, meanwhile, have shown that factors known to have roles in plant morphology also function in plant immune responses. Evolutionary conservation of these factors and systems implies that host-pathogen interactions and the evolution they drive have yielded tight links between morphological processes and immune responses. In this review, recent findings about these topics are introduced and discussed.