Plant Immunity: Danger Perception and Signaling

Plants employ numerous cell-surface and intracellular immune receptors to perceive a variety of immunogenic signals associated with pathogen infection and subsequently activate defenses. Immune signaling is potentiated by the major defense hormone salicylic acid (SA), which reprograms the transcriptome for defense. Here we highlight recent advances in understanding the mechanisms underlying activation of the main classes of immune receptors, summarize the current understanding of their signaling mechanisms, and discuss an updated model for SA perception and signaling. In addition, we discuss how different receptors are organized into networks and the implications of such networks in the integration of complex danger signals for appropriate defense outputs. Plants possess a sophisticated and complex immune signaling system, many components or which are either conserved or have analogous counterparts in animals. Jian-Min Zhou and Yuelin Zhang review plant immune signaling mechanisms, from sensing mechanisms to transcriptional responses, noting key parallels to animal immunity.