603: Antagonistic Control of Disease Resistance Protein Stability in the Plant Immune System -- Holt et al. 309 (5736): 929 -- Science

Antagonistic Control of Disease Resistance Protein Stability in the Plant Immune System -- Holt et al. 309 (5736): 929 -- Science:

Pathogen recognition by the plant immune system is governed by structurally related, polymorphic products of disease resistance (R) genes. RAR1 and/or SGT1b mediate the function of many R proteins. RAR1 controls preactivation R protein accumulation by an unknown mechanism. We demonstrate that Arabidopsis SGT1b has two distinct, genetically separable functions in the plant immune system: SGT1b antagonizes RAR1 to negatively regulate R protein accumulation before infection, and SGT1b has a RAR1-independent function that regulates programmed cell death during infection. The balanced activities of RAR1 and SGT1, in concert with cytosolic HSP90, modulate preactivation R protein accumulation and signaling competence.

Understanding the Arabidopsis immune system reveals information about other plants because of common descent.