Effector recognition and activation of the Arabidopsis thaliana NLR innate immune receptors

Plant immunity to coevolved pathogens relies on the perception of pathogenic effectors by nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat-containing (NLR) proteins-sophisticated intracellular receptors that have both perception and signaling roles in activating defenses. Given the conserved domain architecture of NLRs, a structural biology perspective is particularly relevant to understanding mechanisms of their activation. Here, we summarize our recent findings on the Arabidopsis resistance protein RPP1, a member of the TIR-NBS-LRR family of plant NLRs that specifically recognizes the cognate effector protein ATR1. To study the basis of RPP1 activation, we have taken advantage of a series of RPP1 and ATR1 alleles that differentially condition resistance. In planta association between the LRR domain of RPP1 and ATR1 only occurs in a resistance-activating combination of alleles, suggesting that a direct interaction between RPP1 and ATR1 protein leads to activation of the NLR (Krasileva et al. 2010). Given critical amino acid residues' locations on the solved ATR1 crystal structure, and variable amino acid residues on the predicted LRR structure of RPP1, we hypothesize that specific "hotspots" of the horseshoe-like LRR fold mediate binding to the ATR1 ligand and that polymorphisms mapping to these surfaces condition differences in allelic recognition specificity. We present docking models of a possible co-complex between RPP1 and ATR1, and we propose that ATR1 binding relieves autoinhibition of RPP1 resistance signaling. This is consistent with current models of activation for both TIR- and CC-type plant NLRs, where conformational changes could lead to NLR oligomerization, nucleotide binding, translocation, and other critical downstream events in triggering immunity.