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Intrinsic disorder in plant-microbe interactions

ID AvrPtoB“Effector proteins are a refined mechanism of bacterial pathogens to overcome plants' innate immune systems. These modular proteins often manipulate host physiology by directly interfering with immune signaling of plant cells. Even if host cells have developed efficient strategies to perceive the presence of pathogenic microbes and to recognize intracellular effector activity, it remains an open question why only few effectors are recognized directly by plant resistance proteins. We have estimated that bacterial effectors of phytopathogens are highly enriched in long-disordered regions (>50 residues). These structurally flexible segments have no secondary structure under physiological conditions but can fold in a stimulus-dependent manner (e.g., during protein-protein interactions). The high abundance of intrinsic disorder in effectors strongly suggests positive evolutionary selection of this structural feature and highlights the dynamic nature of these proteins. We postulate that such structural flexibility may be essential for (1) effector translocation, (2) evasion of the innate immune system, and (3) host function mimicry."

(Modified from Marín M., Uversky V.N. & Ott T. (2013); The Plant Cell, 25: 3153-7) 

Publication from our lab on this topic:

Marín M., Ott T. 
Intrinsic disorder in plant proteins and phytopathogenic bacterial effectors.
Chemical Reviews. 2014. 114(13): 6912-32.

Marín M., Uversky V.N., Ott T.
Intrinsic disorder in pathogen effectors: Protein flexibility as an evolutionary hallmark in a molecular arms race.
The Plant Cell. 2013. 25(9): 3153-7 4.

Marín, M., Thallmair, V., Ott, T.
The intrinsically disordered N-terminal region of AtREM1.3 remorin protein mediates protein-protein interactions.
Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2012. 287(47): 39982-91.

Marín M., Ott T.
Phosphorylation of intrinsically disordered regions in remorin proteins.
Frontiers in Plant Science. 2012. 3:86.