A wheat tandem kinase activates an NLR to trigger immunity

Renjie Chen, Jian Chen, Oliver R. Powell, Megan A. Outram, Taj Arndell, Karthick Gajendiran, Yan L. Wang, Jibril Lubega, Yang Xu, Michael A. Ayliffe, Cheryl Blundell, Melania Figueroa, Jana Sperschneider, Thomas Vanhercke, Kostya Kanyuka, Dingzhong Tang, Guitao Zhong, Catherine Gardener, Guotai Yu, Spyridon GourdoupisŁukasz Jaremko, Oadi Matny, Brian J. Steffenson, Willem H.P. Boshoff, Wilku B. Meyer, Stefan T. Arold, Peter N. Dodds, Brande B.H. Wulff

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The role of nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptors in plant immunity is well studied, but the function of a class of tandem kinases (TKs) that confer disease resistance in wheat and barley remains unclear. In this study, we show that the SR62 locus is a digenic module encoding the Sr62TK TK and an NLR (Sr62NLR), and we identify the corresponding AvrSr62 effector. AvrSr62 binds to the N-terminal kinase 1 of Sr62TK, triggering displacement of kinase 2, which activates Sr62NLR. Modeling and mutation analysis indicated that this is mediated by overlapping binding sites (i) on kinase 1 for binding AvrSr62 and kinase 2 and (ii) on kinase 2 for binding kinase 1 and Sr62NLR. Understanding this two-component resistance complex may help engineering and breeding plants for durable resistance.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1402-1408
Number of pages7
JournalScience (New York, N.Y.)
Volume387
Issue number6741
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 28 2025

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