A researcher says the work began 13 years ago with a difficult protein and is now published in Science.
A researcher describes CHIP13 as a molecular measuring tape that helps plants read chitin length. They say the work began 13 years ago with a recalcitrant protein and is now published in Science.
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Plants often treat chitin, a component of fungal cell walls, as an alarm signal. But related chitin molecules also appear around fungi that form beneficial partnerships with plants. A new study in Science describes how a class of cell-surface receptors called CHITIN PERCEPTION, or CHIP, distinguishes the longer chitin fragments associated with an immune response.
Structural analysis showed that a CHIP receptor's bridge domain holds a chitin chain across three contact sites spanning two lysin motif domains. Only a sufficiently long chain can reach all three sites and fully engage the receptor. Researcher Kira Gysel compared CHIP13 to a molecular measuring tape.
Once long-chain chitin engages CHIP, the receptor recruits CHITIN ELICITOR RECEPTOR KINASE, or CERK, coreceptors. The paper describes CERKs as low-affinity but essential partners and proposes that the resulting complex triggers immune signaling.
The researchers combined receptor-ligand structural analysis, biochemistry and in-plant tests using inhibitory nanobodies in Lotus japonicus and Medicago truncatula. Those species define the demonstrated scope of the mechanism; the study does not establish that every plant handles chitin in exactly the same way.
Gysel said the project began 13 years ago with a difficult-to-handle protein. The long path ended with a structural explanation for how these two legumes can sort chitin fragments by size before activating an immune response.
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@kiragyselHow do plants read chitin length? The receptor CHIP13 works like a molecular measuring tape. What began 13 years ago with a recalcitrant protein is now in @ScienceMagazine Thanks to all co-authors and colleagues! @MolBiolAU https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz4600
@ScienceMagazineRT @kiragysel: How do plants read chitin length? The receptor CHIP13 works like a molecular measuring tape. What began 13 years ago with a…@kiragyselHow do plants read chitin length? The receptor CHIP13 works like a molecular measuring tape. What began 13 years ago with a recalcitrant protein is now in @ScienceMagazine Thanks to all co-authors and colleagues! @MolBiolAU https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz4600@ScienceMagazineRT @kiragysel: How do plants read chitin length? The receptor CHIP13 works like a molecular measuring tape. What began 13 years ago with a…@kiragyselHow do plants read chitin length? The receptor CHIP13 works like a molecular measuring tape. What began 13 years ago with a recalcitrant protein is now in @ScienceMagazine Thanks to all co-authors and colleagues! @MolBiolAU https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz4600@ScienceMagazineRT @kiragysel: How do plants read chitin length? The receptor CHIP13 works like a molecular measuring tape. What began 13 years ago with a…@kiragyselHow do plants read chitin length? The receptor CHIP13 works like a molecular measuring tape. What began 13 years ago with a recalcitrant protein is now in @ScienceMagazine Thanks to all co-authors and colleagues! @MolBiolAU https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz4600@ScienceMagazineRT @kiragysel: How do plants read chitin length? The receptor CHIP13 works like a molecular measuring tape. What began 13 years ago with a…
