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In nature, roots of healthy plants are colonized by multikingdom microbial communities that include bacteria, fungi, and oomycetes. A key question is how plants control the assembly of these diverse microbes in roots to maintain host-microbe homeostasis and health. Using microbiota reconstitution experiments with a set of immunocompromised Arabidopsis thaliana mutants and a multikingdom synthetic microbial community (SynCom) representative of the natural A. thaliana root microbiota, we observed that microbiota-mediated plant growth promotion was abolished in most of the tested immunocompromised mutants. Notably, more than 40% of between-genotype variation in these microbiota-induced growth differences was explained by fungal but not bacterial or oomycete load in roots. Extensive fungal overgrowth in roots and altered plant growth was evident at both vegetative and reproductive stages for a mutant impaired in the production of tryptophan-derived, specialized metabolites ( cyp79b2/b3 ). Microbiota manipulation experiments with single- and multikingdom microbial SynComs further demonstrated that 1) the presence of fungi in the multikingdom SynCom was the direct cause of the dysbiotic phenotype in the cyp79b2/b3 mutant and 2) bacterial commensals and host tryptophan metabolism are both necessary to control fungal load, thereby promoting A. thaliana growth and survival. Our results indicate that protective activities of bacterial root commensals are as critical as the host tryptophan metabolic pathway in preventing fungal dysbiosis in the A. thaliana root endosphere., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest., (Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

The rice immune receptor XA21 is activated by the sulfated microbial peptide required for activation of XA21-mediated immunity X (RaxX) produced by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae ( Xoo ). Mutational studies and targeted proteomics revealed that the RaxX precursor peptide (proRaxX) is processed and secreted by the protease/transporter RaxB, the function of which can be partially fulfilled by a noncognate peptidase-containing transporter component B (PctB). proRaxX is cleaved at a Gly-Gly motif, yielding a mature peptide that retains the necessary elements for RaxX function as an immunogen and host peptide hormone mimic. These results indicate that RaxX is a prokaryotic member of a previously unclassified and understudied group of eukaryotic tyrosine sulfated ribosomally synthesized, posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs). We further demonstrate that sulfated RaxX directly binds XA21 with high affinity. This work reveals a complete, previously uncharacterized biological process: bacterial RiPP biosynthesis, secretion, binding to a eukaryotic receptor, and triggering of a robust host immune response., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Plants use receptor kinases (RKs) and receptor-like proteins (RLPs) as pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) to sense pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) that are typical of whole classes of microbes. After ligand perception, many leucine-rich repeat (LRR)-containing PRRs interact with the LRR-RK BRI1-ASSOCIATED KINASE 1 (BAK1). BAK1 is thus expected to interact with unknown PRRs. Here, we used BAK1 as molecular bait to identify a previously unknown LRR-RLP required for the recognition of the csp22 peptide derived from bacterial cold shock protein. We established a method to identify proteins that interact with BAK1 only after csp22 treatment. BAK1 was expressed transiently in Nicotiana benthamiana and immunopurified after treatment with csp22. BAK1-associated proteins were identified by mass spectrometry. We identified several proteins including known BAK1 interactors and a previously uncharacterized LRR-RLP that we termed RECEPTOR-LIKE PROTEIN REQUIRED FOR CSP22 RESPONSIVENESS (NbCSPR). This RLP associates with BAK1 upon csp22 treatment, and NbCSPR-silenced plants are impaired in csp22-induced defense responses. NbCSPR confers resistance to bacteria in an age-dependent and flagellin-induced manner. As such, it limits bacterial growth and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of flowering N. benthamiana plants. Transgenic expression of NbCSPR into Arabidopsis thaliana conferred responsiveness to csp22 and antibacterial resistance. Our method may be used to identify LRR-type RKs and RLPs required for PAMP perception/responsiveness, even when the active purified PAMP has not been defined.

Metazoans and plants use pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) to sense conserved microbial-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) in the extracellular environment. In plants, the bacterial MAMPs flagellin and elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) activate distinct, phylogenetically related cell surface pattern recognition receptors of the leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase (LRR-RK) family called FLS2 and EF-Tu receptor, respectively. BAK1 is an LRR-RK coreceptor for both FLS2 and EF-Tu receptor. BAK1 is also a coreceptor for the plant brassinosteroid (BR) receptor, the LRR-RK BRI1. Binding of BR to BRI1 primarily promotes cell elongation. Here, we tune the BR pathway response to establish how plant cells can generate functionally different cellular outputs in response to MAMPs and pathogens. We demonstrate that BR can act antagonistically or synergistically with responses to MAMPs. We further show that the synergistic activities of BRs on MAMP responses require BAK1. Our results highlight the importance of plant steroid homeostasis as a critical step in the establishment of plant immunity. We propose that tradeoffs associated with plasticity in the face of infection are layered atop plant steroid developmental programs.

Receptor kinases with leucine-rich repeat (LRR) extracellular domains form the largest family of receptors in plants. In the few cases for which there is mechanistic information, ligand binding in the extracellular domain often triggers the recruitment of a LRR-coreceptor kinase. The current model proposes that this recruitment is mediated by their respective kinase domains. Here, we show that the extracellular LRR domain of BRI1-ASSOCIATED KINASE1 (BAK1), a coreceptor involved in the disparate processes of cell surface steroid signaling and immunity in plants, is critical for its association with specific ligand-binding LRR-containing receptors. The LRRs of BAK1 thus serve as a platform for the molecular assembly of signal-competent receptors. We propose that this mechanism represents a paradigm for LRR receptor activation in plants.