Plant disease susceptibility conferred by a “resistance” gene
- *Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331
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Edited by Steven P. Briggs, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved July 12, 2007 (received for review March 20, 2007)
Abstract
The molecular nature of many plant disease resistance (R) genes is known; the largest class encodes nucleotide-binding site-leucine-rich repeat (NBS-LRR) proteins that are structurally related to proteins involved in innate immunity in animals. Few genes conferring disease susceptibility, on the other hand, have been identified. Recent identification of susceptibility to the fungus Cochliobolus victoriae in Arabidopsis thaliana has enabled our cloning of LOV1, a disease susceptibility gene that, paradoxically, is a member of the NBS-LRR resistance gene family. We found LOV1 mediates responses associated with defense, but mutations in known defense response pathways do not prevent susceptibility to C. victoriae. These findings demonstrate that NBS-LRR genes can condition disease susceptibility and resistance and may have implications for R gene deployment.
Footnotes
- *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: wolpertt{at}science.oregonstate.edu
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Author contributions: J.M.L. and T.J.W. designed research; J.M.L. and T.A.S. performed research; J.M.L., T.A.S., and T.J.W. analyzed data; and J.M.L. and T.J.W. wrote the paper.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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The sequence reported in this paper has been deposited in the GenBank database (accession no. EF472599).
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This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0702572104/DC1.
- Abbreviations:
- HR,
- hypersensitive cell death;
- HST,
- host-selective toxin;
- NBS-LRR,
- nucleotide- binding site-leucine-rich repeat;
- SA,
- salicylic acid.
- © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
