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Identification of Post-translational Modifications of Plant Protein Complexes
Published on: February 22, 2014
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Evolutionary trajectory of pattern recognition receptors in plants
Bruno Pok Man Ngou1, Michele Wyler2, Marc W Schmid2
1RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Yokohama, Japan.
Nature Communications
|February 1, 2024
Summary
Plant immune receptors (LRR-RLPs) evolved from growth-regulating receptors (LRR-RLK-Xb), sharing common origins. This study reveals how these cell-surface receptors diversify to detect various signals for environmental adaptation.
Area of Science:
- Plant biology
- Evolutionary biology
- Molecular genetics
Background:
- Cell-surface receptors are crucial for immunity, development, and reproduction.
- The evolutionary pathways for receptor specialization remain largely unknown.
- Understanding plant immune receptor evolution is key to agricultural and environmental science.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolutionary origin of immune-specific leucine-rich repeat receptor-like proteins (LRR-RLPs) in plants.
- To elucidate the relationship between plant immune and development-regulating cell-surface receptors.
- To uncover the molecular mechanisms driving receptor diversification for environmental adaptation.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of over 200,000 cell-surface receptor genes from 350 plant genomes.
- Phylogenetic analysis to trace the evolutionary history of LRR-RLPs.
- Functional characterization of receptor domains (juxtamembrane, transmembrane, cytosolic kinase domains).
Main Results:
- LRR-RLPs share evolutionary origins with LRR-receptor-like kinase (RLK) subgroup Xb, which regulates plant growth and development.
- Key motifs for co-receptor interaction in LRR-RLPs are related to those in LRR-RLK-Xb.
- LRR-RLPs initiate immunity via juxtamembrane/transmembrane regions; LRR-RLK-Xb regulates development via kinase domains.
Conclusions:
- Plant cell-surface receptors involved in immunity and development share a common evolutionary origin.
- Diversification of receptor regions allows recognition of diverse signals and activation of specific responses.
- This evolutionary mechanism enables plants to adapt to changing environments by perceiving various external signals.
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