A wheat tandem kinase activates an NLR to trigger immunity.

Chen, Renjie; Chen, Jian; Powell, Oliver R; Outram, Megan A; Arndell, Taj; Gajendiran, Karthick; Wang, Yan L; Lubega, Jibril et al. · Science · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The role of nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptors in plant immunity is well studied, but the function of a class of tandem kinases (TKs) that confer disease resistance in wheat and barley remains unclear. In this study, we show that the <i>SR62</i> locus is a digenic module encoding the Sr62<sup>TK</sup> TK and an NLR (Sr62<sup>NLR</sup>), and we identify the corresponding AvrSr62 effector. AvrSr62 binds to the N-terminal kinase 1 of Sr62<sup>TK</sup>, triggering displacement of kinase 2, which activates Sr62<sup>NLR</sup>. Modeling and mutation analysis indicated that this is mediated by overlapping binding sites (i) on kinase 1 for binding AvrSr62 and kinase 2 and (ii) on kinase 2 for binding kinase 1 and Sr62<sup>NLR</sup>. Understanding this two-component resistance complex may help engineering and breeding plants for durable resistance.

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