An immune receptor pair with an integrated decoy converts pathogen disabling of defensive transcription factors into resistance

Microbial pathogens infect host cells by delivering virulence factors (effectors) that interfere with defenses. In plants, intracellular nucleotide-binding/oligomeriza- tion domain (NOD)-like receptors (NLRs) detect specific effector interference and trigger immu- nity by an unknown mechanism. The Arabidopsis interacting NLR pair, RRS1-R with RPS4, confers resistance to different pathogens including Ralstonia solanacearum bacteria expressing the acetyltransferase effector, PopP2. We show that PopP2 directly acetylates a key lysine within an additional C-terminal WRKY transcription factor DNA-binding domain of RRS1-R. This disrupts RRS1-R DNA association and activates RPS4-dependent immunity...