A wheat tandem kinase activates an NLR to trigger immunity
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.
Authors
- Yang Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9819-7790)
- Jibril Lubega
- Brande B. H. Wulff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4044-4346)
- Cheryl Blundell
- Taj Arndell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6540-2006)
- Dingzhong Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8850-8754)
- Megan A. Outram (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4510-3575)
- Oliver R. Powell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5624-8126)
- Michael Ayliffe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3815-7524)
- Mariusz Jaremko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0787-702X)
- Spyridon Gourdoupis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9396-4033)
- Stefan T. Arold (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5278-0668)
- Melania Figueroa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2636-661X)
- Jana Sperschneider (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9385-8588)
- Yan L. Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6606-3173)
- Oadi Matny (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8447-2886)
- Thomas Vanhercke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1397-7622)
- Willem H. P. Boshoff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2769-5546)
- W. Meyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8797-4697)
- K. Kanyuka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6324-4123)
- Peter N. Dodds (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0620-5923)
- Guitao Zhong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1564-9630)
- Catherine Gardener
- Brian J. Steffenson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7961-5363)
- Jian Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8670-6984)
- Karthick Gajendiran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0461-4144)
- Renjie Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-7858-1828)
- Guotai Yu
Institutions
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- National Institute of Agricultural Botany (GB)
- University of the Free State (ZA)
- Agriculture and Food (AU)
- ACT Government (AU)
- Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (CN)
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (SA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-03-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adp5034
- Citations
- 38
- Primary Topic
- Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 66.49
Funders
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council