Center for Plant Molecular Biology, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK.
Science. 2016 Jul 29;353(6298):478-81. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf3919.
Parasitic plants are a constraint on agriculture worldwide. Cuscuta reflexa is a stem holoparasite that infests most dicotyledonous plants. One exception is tomato, which is resistant to C. reflexa We discovered that tomato responds to a small peptide factor occurring in Cuscuta spp. with immune responses typically activated after perception of microbe-associated molecular patterns. We identified the cell surface receptor-like protein CUSCUTA RECEPTOR 1 (CuRe1) as essential for the perception of this parasite-associated molecular pattern. CuRe1 is sufficient to confer responsiveness to the Cuscuta factor and increased resistance to parasitic C. reflexa when heterologously expressed in otherwise susceptible host plants. Our findings reveal that plants recognize parasitic plants in a manner similar to perception of microbial pathogens.
寄生植物是全球农业的一个限制因素。菟丝子是一种茎全寄生植物，寄生在大多数双子叶植物上。番茄是一个例外，它对菟丝子具有抗性。我们发现，番茄对菟丝子属中存在的一种小肽因子作出反应，这种因子通常在感知微生物相关分子模式后被激活。我们确定了细胞表面受体样蛋白 CUSCUTA RECEPTOR 1（CuRe1）是感知这种与寄生虫相关的分子模式所必需的。当在原本易感的宿主植物中异源表达时，CuRe1 足以赋予对菟丝子因子的反应性和对寄生菟丝子的抗性增加。我们的发现表明，植物以类似于感知微生物病原体的方式识别寄生植物。
