International Team Uncovers Mechanism for Natural Plant Immunity

Researchers at The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich (TSL), in close collaboration with Chinese scientists at Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have for the first time, uncovered exactly how an immune receptor mediating plants' natural immunity to bacteria works.

The team uncovered the molecular mechanisms by which a key plant receptor, known as FLS2, recognizes the bacterial protein flagellin that is required for bacterial motility. Flagellin binds directly to the FLS2 receptor, leading to the recruitment of a plant co-receptor required for immune response activation. The research has important implications for developing broad-spectrum disease resistance in crops. TSL senior scientist Prof. Cyril Zipfel said: "This information opens up avenues which will have benefits for crop production worldwide, as it gives us the knowledge to engineer precise resistance in crops."

For more details about this research, read the TSL news release at: http://www.tsl.ac.uk/czproct.html. The results of their study published in the journal Science is available at: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/10/09/science.1243825.