The rise of resistance: decoding and engineering plant immune receptors

Seminar with Associate Professor Ksenia Krasileva, University of California, Berkeley.

Abstract

Plant immune receptors are among the most diverse gene families in plant genomes, and this diversity provides both a record of host–pathogen coevolution and a blueprint for engineering disease resistance. Recent work from our lab highlights how variation at the DNA, RNA, and protein levels can be used to decode and predict receptor function and guide design strategies across model and crop species. We argue that plants behave as “natural engineers,” with immune receptor diversity generated and maintained across multiple molecular layers that can now be interrogated with growing genomic, transcriptomic, and structural datasets. Using both protein language models and structure-guided engineering, we show how computational modeling can predict receptor specificities and rational mutagenesis can resurrect recognition of pathogen escape variants, providing a concrete framework for countering immune evasion. Importantly, we draw parallels in innate immune receptor evolution across kingdoms, using fundamental insights from plants to uncover as-yet-undiscovered immune systems in fungi and to better characterize innate immune receptors in animals, including humans. Together, these studies highlight a modern computational approach that translates natural receptor diversity into the guided engineering of more durable crop resistance and to inform new ways to think about cross-kingdom health.