Scientists solve the mystery of "plant immunity" in 20 years

EDS1 (enhanced disease sustainability 1) protein was originally identified from Arabidopsis, and it has been proved to be an important protein in plants to resist pathogen infection Although it has been more than 20 years since its discovery, the molecular mechanism of EDS1 is still a puzzle for scientists Solving this puzzle will help to greatly enhance the disease resistance of crops and solve the problem of "food shortage" facing the world today Two research papers were published in the latest issue of science Two international research groups led by researchers from the United States and Germany respectively revealed the mechanism of EDS1 activating different elements of the plant immune system "The new study reveals the regionalization of immune responses, which is a very unusual finding." John M McDowell, Professor, Department of plant pathology, physiology and weed science, School of agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech, USA In the same period of science magazine, McDowell published a prospective article titled "beleaguered immunity" to describe these two achievements in detail "The two research teams independently confirmed the key findings, and the two articles complemented each other." McDowell commented Scientists have long believed that EDS1 protein is in the downstream of the first line of plant immune system defense, and its main function is to transmit signals from the upstream "Both articles confirm that EDS1 has a physical interaction with surveillance proteins in plant cells, and that EDS1 seems to be involved in activating different immune responses from different compartments of plant cells," McDowell said In addition, the mechanism of EDS1 protein being attacked by effector proteins from pathogens was revealed Using Arabidopsis as the model plant and Pseudomonas syringae as the model pathogen, the researchers observed the process of Pseudomonas syringae passing through the plant cell wall and secreting effector protein to target EDS1 Plant evolution has formed a molecular hub, which contains the monitoring protein of EDS1 When EDS1 is attacked, the monitoring protein will give an alarm quickly and trigger various immune reactions to isolate the infection "This new finding provides important data for predicting the mechanism of virus action," McDowell said "Although it is not clear how the regulatory protein can activate the antibacterial response at present, a detailed understanding of the interaction between EDS1 and the regulatory protein will promote scientists to design a protein to protect EDS1 against pathogen attack, so that crops can obtain stronger resistance."