Phytophthora and Non-hosts

Summary This research explores plant nonhost resistance (NHR) against the Phytophthora genus, focusing on the role of nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptors. The study reveals that conserved effector families within Phytophthora species are recognized by Solanum NLRs, conferring broad-spectrum resistance. Sequence similarity, more so than structural similarity, effectively predicts which effectors will trigger NLR-mediated recognition. This homology-based approach offers an alternative strategy for identifying functional NLRs in other plant-pathogen systems to breed disease-resistant crops. The researchers demonstrated this by testing the effectiveness of three Solanum NLRs in conferring broad-spectrum resistance in Nicotiana benthamiana. Source: Oh, S., Kim, MS., Kang, H.J. et al. Conserved effector families render Phytophthoraspecies vulnerable to recognition by NLR receptors in nonhost plants. Nat Commun 15, 10070 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54452-2