Intracellular innate immune surveillance devices in plants and animals

Multicellular eukaryotes coevolve with microbial pathogens, which exert strong selective pressure on the immune systems of their hosts. Plants and animals use intracellular proteins of the nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat (NLR) superfamily to detect many types of microbial pathogens. The NLR domain architecture likely evolved independently and convergently in each kingdom, and the molecular mechanisms of pathogen detection by plant and animal NLRs have long been considered to be distinct. However, microbial recognition mechanisms overlap, and it is now possible to discern important key trans-kingdom principles of NLR-dependent immune function. Here, we attempt to articulate these principles. We…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• HH
  Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• GA
  Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
• GC
  Gatsby Charitable Foundation
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• BA
  Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

  Awards: BB/K003550/1, BB/M008193/1, BB/M003809/1
• ER
  European Research Council