Christine Faulkner: Neighbours, friends and enemies: cell-to-cell communication during plant defence

Cell-to-cell communication is fundamental to multicellular organisms as the exchange of information and resources between cells and tissues enables the co-ordination of growth and responses. In plants, the cytoplasm of adjacent cells is connected by plasma membrane-line pores called plasmodesmata (PD) that cross the cell wall. We have shown that regulation of PD (whether they are open or closed) is critical for immune responses, and our recent data has identified that this response is differentially executed in carbon sink and source tissues. Thus, we are investigating how plasmodesmata act as to control the trade-offs between growth and defence. During infection, microbes can also regulate PD. To explore how this benefits infection, we have been structurally and functionally characterising an effector from a fungal pathogen that targets a plasmodesmata-located HMA-domain protein. Here, our data has led us to the hypothesis that the effector target is a novel, plasmodesmata-located immune receptor.