Title:Plant Elite Squad: First Defense Line and Resistance Genes – Identification, Diversity and Functional Roles
VOLUME: 18 ISSUE: 4
Author(s):Ana Carolina Wanderley-Nogueira, Joao Pacífico Bezerra-Neto, Ederson Akio Kido, Flavia Tadeu de Araujo, Lidiane Lindinalva Barbosa Amorim, Sergio Crovella and Ana Maria Benko-Iseppon
Affiliation:Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235, CEP 50.670-420, Recife, PE
Keywords:Avirulence, DAMPs, hypersensitive response, MAMPs, PAMPs, R-gene, signal transduction.
Abstract:Plants exhibit sensitive mechanisms to respond to environmental stresses, presenting some
specific and non-specific reactions when attacked by pathogens, including organisms from different
classes and complexity, as viroids, viruses, bacteria, fungi and nematodes. A crucial step to define the
fate of the plant facing an invading pathogen is the activation of a compatible Resistance (R) gene, the
focus of the present review. Different aspects regarding R-genes and their products are discussed, including
pathogen recognition mechanisms, signaling and effects on induced and constitutive defense
processes, splicing and post transcriptional mechanisms involved. There are still countless challenges
to the complete understanding of the mechanisms involving R-genes in plants, in particular those related
to the interactions with other genes of the pathogen and of the host itself, their regulation, acting
mechanisms at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels, as well as the influence of other types
of stress over their regulation. A magnification of knowledge is expected when considering the novel
information from the omics and systems biology.
