Working together with researchers from the University of Tübingen, the University of Tromsø, the UC Davis and the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, biologists from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have discovered how tomato plants identify Cuscuta spp. as a parasite. The plant has a protein in its cell walls that is identified as ‘foreign’ by Cuscuta Receptor 1 (CuRe1) in cultivated tomato. The findings have been recently published in the journal Nature Communications.*
Cuscuta spp., also known as dodder, is a parasitic vine which grafts to the host plant using haustoria to obtain water, minerals and carbohydrates. The parasite also attacks and damages crops such as oilseed rape, sweetcorn, soy, flax or clover. Although the infection generally goes undetected by the host, some species of tomato actively defend themselves by forming lignified tissue which prevents tomato from the intruding haustoria. In earlier research, the biologists discovered that these tomatoes possess a special receptor, the cuscuta receptor 1 (CuRe1), which triggers the defence mechanism. However, until now it was unclear how the receptor recognises the danger posed by the dodder.
The researchers have now succeeded in answering this question: the dodder possesses a specific marker in its cellular wall, a glycine-rich protein (GRP). Using its receptor CuRe1, the tomato is able to recognise the molecular pattern of the GRP as well as a 21 aa long peptide epitope (Crip21) and identify the dodder as a pathogen, and triggers the immune reaction as a result. The new findings concerning the molecular dialogue between the Cuscuta marker and the tomato receptor may help to increase the resistance of crop plants against parasitic plants.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19147-4
Further information: Prof. Dr. Markus Albert, + 49 9131/85-28211, markus.albert@fau.de