Till death do us pair: Co-evolution of plant-necrotroph interactions

Plants use programmed cell death as a potent defense response against biotrophic pathogens that require living host cells to thrive. However, cell death can promote infection by necrotrophic pathogens. This discrepancy creates specific co-evolutionary dynamics in the interaction between plants and necrotrophs. Necrotrophic pathogens produce diverse cell death-inducing effectors that act redundantly on several plant targets and sometimes suppress plant immune responses as an additional function. Plants use surface receptors that recognize necrotrophic effectors to increase quantitative disease resistance, some of which evolved independently in several plant lineages. Co-evolution has shaped molecular mechanisms involved in plant-necrotroph interactions into robust systems, relying on degenerate and multifunctional modules, general-purpose components, and compartmentalized functioning.