OsCERK1 Regulates Chitin-Triggered Immunity and AM Symbiosis in Rice

Some plants have developed an innate immune system to protect themselves. On the other hand, other plants also establish symbiosis with beneficial microbes such as arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi to improve their growth. How plants evolved these systems remains unclear.

The team of Tomomi Nakagawa of Meiji University in Japan studied rice mutants that does not express OsCERK1, a rice receptor kinase essential for chitin signaling. The mutants had impaired chitin-triggered defense responses and AM symbiosis, indicating the bifunctionality of OsCERK1 in defense and symbiosis.

Further experiments showed that the kinase domains of OsCERK1 and homologs from non-legume, mycorrhizal plants could also trigger nodulation just like in legume–rhizobium interactions. These suggest that OsCERK1 and its homologs serve as a switch that activates defense or symbiotic responses depending on the infecting microbes.

Read more on the study here: http://pcp.oxfordjournals.org/content/55/11/1864.full.