Plants recognise pathogens with cell surface and intracellular immune receptors. Iñigo Bañales, PhD candidate in the laboratory of Guido van den Ackerveken and the Translational Plant Biology group at Utrecht University, mapped and cloned the first cell surface immune receptor in lettuce. This work was done in collaboration with LettuceKnow groups and Richard Michelmore laboratory (UC Davis). The identified receptor recognises a taxonomically broadly distributed PAMP (pathogen-associated molecular pattern) from Necrosis and ethylene-inducing-like proteins (NLPs). The ability of lettuce to recognise the NLP peptides evolved differently from that of Arabidopsis. The identified Lettuce nlp24 receptor (LNR) can be transferred to Solanaceae species to enhance resistance to Phytophthora species. In this project, we continue to study how LNR activates immunity by investigating early transcriptional reprogramming events using time course transcriptomics data.
IP resulting from this project was protected via a patent application.
Defense and Recovery of Plants 