Publications: Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry English

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Ranf, S.; Scheel, D.; Lee, J.; Challenges in the identification of microbe-associated molecular patterns in plant and animal innate immunity: a case study with bacterial lipopolysaccharide Mol. Plant Pathol. 17 1165-1169 (2016) DOI: 10.1111/mpp.12452

Immunity against pathogen infection depends on a host's ability to sense invading pathogens and to rapidly trigger defence reactions that block pathogen proliferation. Both plants and animals detect conserved structural motifs of microbe‐specific compounds, so‐called microbe‐associated molecular patterns (MAMPs), through germline‐encoded immune sensors, which are accordingly termed pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) (Akira et al., 2006; Boller and Felix, 2009). Activated PRRs initiate signal transduction and trigger innate immune responses. MAMPs are generally derived from elements essential for microbial fitness and are conserved across species, thus enabling the host to detect a range of potential pathogens. In mammals, innate immune sensing of MAMPs is not only crucial for basal immune responses but is also tightly connected with and required for a subsequent adaptive, antibody‐mediated immunity (Akira et al., 2006; Janeway and Medzhitov, 2002). Plants, lacking an adaptive immune system, have apparently evolved a greater capacity to detect a broader repertoire of MAMPs. Different plant species possess distinct sets of highly specific PRRs, but the downstream signalling pathways are rather conserved and converge on common signalling steps. This allows the transfer of PRRs, even to different plant families, whilst maintaining their functionality and specificity (Zipfel, 2014). This also enables researchers to use well‐studied, genetically amenable model systems for the identification of MAMPs and their respective PRRs. Several examples of interfamily PRR transfer have demonstrated that the introduction of novel PRRs into plant species can confer relevant levels of resistance to otherwise susceptible plants (e.g. Afroz et al., 2011; Hao et al., 2015; Lacombe et al., 2010; Mendes et al., 2010; Schoonbeek et al., 2015; Tripathi et al., 2014). Hence, MAMP sensing by PRRs has great potential for the engineering of disease resistance in crop plants. In recent years, it has therefore become a major task to identify and isolate MAMPs from a range of microorganisms, and their respective PRRs, to study their role in innate immunity and their application potential.