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Innate immunity

Plants just say NO to pathogens

Nature volume 394, pages 525–527 (1998)Cite this article

A plant's cellular responses to infection are often correlated with rapid, localized cell death — termed the hypersensitive response — at the site of attempted infection. This is a programmed cell death in the sense that it can be mimicked by plant mutants in the absence of pathogen5. But it is not clear whether the hypersensitive response itself kills the pathogen, or whether the response is a by-product of the execution mechanism.

One of the cellular responses to invasion is an oxidative burst, leading to the production of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROIs). We do not know whether the ROIs orchestrate the hypersensitive response directly (by killing cells6), indirectly (by signalling further cellular responses7), or both. Superoxide8, the first product of the oxidative burst, is a poor candidate for the cell executioner — it has a short half-life, being rapidly converted to hydrogen peroxide, and it does not readily diffuse. Hydrogen peroxide itself is toxic at high concentrations, but not enough of it is commonly produced during resistance responses to kill cells outright7,9.

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Figure 1: Plant defence responses to pathogen invasion.

References

  1. Bent, A. Plant Cell 8, 1757-1771 (1996).

  2. Hammond-Kosack, K. E. & Jones, J. D. G. Plant Cell 8, 1773-1791 (1996).

  3. Delledonne, M., Xia, Y., Dixon, R. A. & Lamb, C. Nature 394, 585-588 (1998).

  4. Durner, J., Wendehenne, D. & Klessig, D. F. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA (in the press).

  5. Dangl, J. L., Dietrich, R. A. & Richberg, M. H. Plant Cell 8, 1793-1807 (1996).

  6. Levine, A., Tenhaken, R., Dixon, R. & Lamb, C. J. Cell 79, 583-593 (1994).

  7. Jabs, T. et al. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 94, 4800-4805 (1997).

  8. Doke, N. Physiol. Plant Pathol. 23, 345-357 (1983).

  9. Glazener, J. A., Orlandi, E. W. & Baker, C. J. Plant Physiol. 110, 759-763 (1996).

  10. Nathan, C. Cell 82, 873-876 (1995).

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  12. Xia, Y. & Zweier, J. L. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 94, 6954-6958 (1997).

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  14. Dangl, J. & Jones, J. D. G. (eds) Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 1, 274-365 (1998).

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  1. Department of Biology and Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#3280, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599-3280, USA

    Jeff Dangl

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Dangl, J. Plants just say NO to pathogens. Nature 394, 525–527 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/28958

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