CooPAIRation · Optimised plant immune receptor pairs for improved disease resistance

CooPAIRation is an ambitious project that aims to harness the genetic diversity and evolutionary history of the TaPik wheat immune receptor pair to determine the molecular mechanisms underpinning paired receptor compatibility and guide the design of optimised immune receptor pairs for disease resistance. Bioengineering new resistance profiles in plant immune receptors offers a powerful solution for the timely deployment of new disease resistance traits in the field to fight off rapidly evolving plant pathogens that threaten food security. However, bioengineering plant immune receptor pairs often leads to suboptimal immune responses, likely due to receptor incompatibility caused by the editing process. To address this, the central hypothesis of CooPAIRation is that identifying the mechanisms underlying paired immune receptor compatibility in the context of natural and bioengineered alleles will guide optimisation efforts to enable the deployment and stacking of immune receptor alleles without detrimental effects for crop plants.To achieve our aim, we will combine phylogenetics, functional assays and structural biology to link variation in the immune response across different immune receptor pairs to specific molecular determinants of receptor compatibility and harness this information to design optimised receptor pairs for disease resistance. We will pursue the following objectives:1.Phylogenetics: Determine the variation in immune response triggered by coevolved and mismatched receptor pairs2.Mechanisms: Identify the molecular mechanisms underlying sensor-helper compatibility3.Biophysics: Define the biophysical properties of optimal and suboptimal sensor-helper combinations4.Resistance: Deliver optimised receptor pairs for disease resistanceAt the completion of this project, we will define the underpinning functioning principles of paired immune receptor compatibility and deliver optimised strategies for bioengineering disease resistance.