Plant cell surface immune receptor complex signaling

Abstract

Plant plasma membrane pattern recognition receptors are key to microbe sensing and activation of immunity to microbial invasion. Plants employ several types of such receptors that differ mainly in the structure of their ectodomains and the presence or absence of a cytoplasmic protein kinase domain. Plant immune receptors do not function as single entities, but form larger complexes which undergo compositional changes in a ligand-dependent manner. Here, we highlight current knowledge of molecular mechanisms underlying receptor complex dynamics and regulation, and cover early signaling networks implicated in the activation of generic plant immune responses. We further discuss how an increasingly comprehensive set of immune receptors may be employed to engineer crop plants with enhanced, durable resistance to microbial infection.