Genomic Screens to Identify Next-Generation MAMPs and their Cognate Pattern Recognition Receptors    
D. DESVEAUX (1), A. Mott (2), S. Thakur (2), E. Smakowska (3), P. Wang (1), Y. Belkhadir (3), D. Guttman (1) (1) University of Toronto / Centre for the Analysis of Genome Evolution and Function, Canada; (2) University of Toronto, Canada; (3) Gregor Mendel Institute (GMI), Austria

Pattern recognition receptor (PRR)-triggered immunity (PTI) is a basal branch of the plant immune system that prevents most microbes from invading plant tissues. PRRs recognize microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs), conserved microbial molecules that are necessary for microbial fitness, and activate a signaling cascade resulting in transcriptional reprogramming and changes to the apoplastic environment that hinder microbial growth. Experimental approaches were successful at identifying the first microbial MAMPs to trigger PTI in plants, with the best characterized being the flg22 peptide of bacterial flagellin recognized by the PRR FLS2. More recently, next generation sequencing of Pseudomonas syringae pathovars has allowed the successful in silico prediction of MAMPs through the identification of positive selection signatures on proteins of the core genome. Although these MAMPs induce the hallmark responses of PTI, including virulence suppression, the PRRs that recognize them remain to be identified. Our latest genomic efforts to identify the cognate PRRs of P. syringae next-generation MAMPs will be presented.

Abstract Number: P17-513
Session Type: Poster