Friendly microbes teach plants when not to panic
Chen Y, Liu Y, Shen Q, Zhang R
Plant Signaling
The compost-fed, mycorrhizae-rich soil in your garden beds may be doing more than feeding your tomatoes, it could be recalibrating how sensitively they react to every microbe they encounter, above and below ground.
Plants are constantly surrounded by microbes, some harmful and some helpful, and they need a way to tell the difference without wasting energy attacking their allies. This article proposes that beneficial microbes actually raise a plant's threshold for triggering an immune response, coordinating signals from both roots and leaves so the plant stays calmer around friendly organisms. The authors also suggest that how a plant reacts depends on the dose of microbial signals it senses, not just whether it recognizes them at all.
Key Findings
Proposes that beneficial microbes coordinately regulate above-ground and below-ground immune signaling to expand the plant's overall immune threshold
Introduces a dose-dependent model where the amount of microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs), not just their recognition, shapes the immune response
Integrates this concept into existing pattern-triggered and effector-triggered immunity frameworks to build a new model of plant immunity
chevron_right Technical Summary
Beneficial soil and leaf microbes don't just help plants grow, they actively raise the bar for how much of a threat is needed before a plant's immune system kicks in, letting plants tolerate more microbial company without overreacting.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Expanded threshold of plant immunity by beneficial microbes.
Plants have evolved two primary innate immune strategies, pattern-triggered immunity and effector-triggered immunity, to prevent excessive microbial infection. As the 'second genome' of plants, mic...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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