J. Kourelis

Bioengineering secreted proteases converts divergent Rcr3 orthologs and paralogs into extracellular immune co-receptors

This study bioengineers proteases to convert Rcr3 orthologs and Pip1 into immune co-receptors that trigger Avr2/Cf-2 dependent immunity in tomato.

The blast effector Pwl2 is a virulence factor that modifies the cellular localisation of host protein HIPP43 to suppress immunity.

This study identifies Pwl2 as a virulence factor in the rice blast fungus that suppresses host immunity by altering the localization of HIPP43.

Activation of plant immunity through conversion of a helper NLR homodimer into a resistosome

This study shows how the helper NLR NRC2 converts from a homodimer to a higher-order oligomer upon activation by the sensor NLR Rx, revealing the molecular mechanism of plant immune activation.

A root-specific NLR network confers resistance to plant parasitic nematodes

The paper identifies a root-specific NLR gene cluster in tomato that confers resistance to nematodes and evolved from an ancient NRC network.

Functional divergence shaped the network architecture of plant immune receptors

The paper shows how functional divergence in NRC3 variants shapes the genetic architecture of the NLR network in solanaceous plants, leading to subfunctionalization and increased immune system complexity.

Enhanced late blight resistance by engineering an EpiC2B-insensitive immune protease

The paper enhances late blight resistance in tomato by engineering an immune protease insensitive to a pathogen inhibitor.

The N-terminal executioner domains of NLR immune receptors are functionally conserved across major plant lineages

Allelic compatibility in plant immune receptors facilitates engineering of new effector recognition specificities.

This paper demonstrates how allelic compatibility in the Pik NLR pair can be exploited to engineer NLRs with expanded effector recognition specificities without causing constitutive cell death.

Disentangling the complex gene interaction networks between rice and the blast fungus identifies a new pathogen effector

Effector-dependent activation and oligomerization of NRC helper NLRs by Rpi-amr3 and Rpi-amr1

This study shows that sensor NLRs Rpi-amr3 and Rpi-amr1 activate the helper NLR NRC2 to form a resistosome in response to Phytophthora effectors.

Sensor NLR immune proteins activate oligomerization of their NRC helper

The paper shows that activation of plant NLRs Rx and Bs2 leads to oligomerization of the helper NLR NRC2, suggesting a distinct activation model compared to mammalian paired NLRs.

NLR immune receptor-nanobody fusions confer plant disease resistance

This study demonstrates that plant immune receptor-nanobody fusions can confer resistance against plant viruses expressing fluorescent proteins.

The helper NLR immune protein NRC3 mediates the hypersensitive cell death caused by the cell-surface receptor Cf-4

The paper identifies NRC3 as an NLR protein required for hypersensitive cell death triggered by the PRR Cf-4 in response to the fungal effector Avr4.

Jurassic NLR: conserved and dynamic evolutionary features of the atypically ancient immune receptor ZAR1

This study reconstructs the evolutionary history of the ancient ZAR1 NLR immune receptor, revealing conserved features and novel domain acquisitions across plant lineages.

Agromonas: a rapid disease assay for Pseudomonas syringae growth in agroinfiltrated leaves

Agromonas is a rapid and robust method to monitor Pseudomonas syringae growth in agroinfiltrated leaves expressing immune components and their suppressors.

RefPlantNLR: a comprehensive collection of experimentally validated plant NLRs

The paper introduces RefPlantNLR, a dataset of 442 experimentally validated plant NLRs, and benchmarks NLR annotation tools, leading to the development of a new pipeline, NLRtracker.

Homology-guided re-annotation improves the gene models of the alloploid Nicotiana benthamiana

The paper improves gene models of Nicotiana benthamiana using homology-guided re-annotation, resulting in a more complete and accurate proteome database.