Climate change effects on plant immune activation

Abstract

The forecasted global climate changes will expose plants to challenging environmental conditions that further increase outbreak risks and threaten ecosystems and food security. The sole host defense mechanism plants possess is innate immunity. This system relies on extra- and intracellular receptors mediating pattern- and damage-triggered immunity (PTI/DTI) and effector-triggered immunity. Here, we discuss how environmental changes can alter the expression dynamics of extracellular receptors activating PTI/DTI, the so-called pattern-recognition receptors, and cell wall integrity sensors. We examine possible crosstalk between selected abiotic stress and immune signaling and briefly argue how two major abiotic stress-related transcription factor families, such as the heat stress factors and dehydration-responsive element-binding/C-repeat-binding factors, cooperate with immune signaling during acclimation responses.

Keywords: DAMP; MAMP; PRR; acclimation; climate change; plant immunity.