Plant immunity responses are initiated upon recognition of conserved microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) that trigger a network of cellular signalling events. Our research emphasis is on two aspects of the cellular signal transduction, viz. calcium and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling. Calcium flux is one of the earliest events following MAMP perception. Several know...

The sessile plants have evolved a large number of receptor-like kinases (RLKs) and receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases (RLCKs) to modulate diverse biological processes, including plant innate immunity. Phosphorylation of the RLK/RLCK complex constitutes an essential step to initiate immune signaling. Two Arabidopsis plasma membrane-resident RLKs, flagellin-sensing 2 and brassinosteroid insensitiv...

Brassinosteroids (BRs) regulate multiple aspects of plant growth and development and require an active BRASSINOSTEROID-INSENSITIVE1 (BRI1) and BRI1-ASSOCIATED RECEPTOR KINASE1 (BAK1) for hormone perception and signal transduction. Many animal receptor kinases exhibit ligand-dependent oligomerization followed by autophosphorylation and activation of the intracellular kinase domain. To determine ...

Citrus canker is a quarantined disease caused by the bacterial plant pathogen Xanthomonas citri subsp. (Xcc), which causes persistent surface damage, leaf and fruit drop, tree decline in citrus plants. The cultivar Citron C-05 (Citrus medica L.) disease-resistant genotype identified after years of screening at National Center for Improvement (Changsha), displays allergic, necrotic, responses to...

Stomatal movements are crucial for the control of plant water status and protection against pathogens. Assays on epidermal peels revealed that, similar to abscisic acid (ABA), pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) flg22 requires the AtPIP2;1 aquaporin to induce stomatal closure. Flg22 also induced an increase in osmotic water permeability (Pf) of guard cell protoplasts through activation...

PLANT BIOLOGY Retraction for “Autophosphorylation of Tyr-610 in the receptor kinase BAK1 plays a role in brassinosteroid signaling and basal defense gene expression,” by Man-Ho Oh, Xiaofeng Wang, Xia Wu, Youfu Zhao, Steven D. Clouse, and Steven C. Huber, which appeared in issue 41, October 12, 2010, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (107:17827–17832; first published September 27, 2010; 10.1073/ pnas.09...

Metazoans and plants use pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) to sense conserved microbial-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) in the extracellular environment. In plants, the bacterial MAMPs flagellin and elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) activate distinct, phylogenetically related cell surface pattern recognition receptors of the leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase (LRR-RK) family called FLS2 an...

BAX/BAK activation leading to mitochondrial outer-membrane permeabilization is a key commitment point in apoptosis. Chipuk et al. now identify two sphingolipids as specific cofactors for BAX/BAK activation that lower the threshold for apoptosis-associated cytochrome c release. Association of mitochondria with other cellular membrane compartments is required for BAK/BAX exposure to these sphingo...

We have read with much interest the article Gottlieb et al. [2009] about BAK1 (MIM] 600516), as well as the epistolary exchange with Dr. Hatchwell that followed [Gottlieb et al., 2010; Hatchwell, 2010]. Our reading was all the more careful that the message delivered by the authors was strong, and was largely echoed and amplified in many scientific and nonscientific journals. Much noise was made...