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Immune responses: Photosynthetic defence

Nature Plants volume 1, Article number: 15079 (2015) Cite this article

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Plant defence against pathogens requires energy, which is provided by photosynthesis. But in addition to this indirect supply role, the photosynthetic light reaction is an active player in fighting off bacteria.

Photosynthesis and immunity in plants are two fundamental cellular processes that have been studied individually for decades, resulting in detailed knowledge about their function and regulation. Obvious links between them exist due to the function of the chloroplast in primary metabolism. An infecting pathogen needs to access to products of photosynthesis as a carbon source, and energy for plant defence responses is also provided by photosynthesis. However, a more central role for the chloroplast in regulation of immune responses as an integrator of environmental signals is emerging1. In this issue of Nature Plants, Torres Zabala et al. pinpoint a direct role for photosystem II in restricting bacterial pathogens2. This was uncovered by demonstrating temporal co-ordination between transcriptional reprogramming throughout the whole infection process and physiological changes in photosynthesis in the Pseudomonas syringae–Arabidopsis thaliana model system.

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Figure 1: The chloroplast as a defence organelle.

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  1. Vera Göhre is at Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Institute for Microbiology, Cluster of Excellence in Plant Sciences, iGRAD-plant, Düsseldorf 40225, Germany.,

    Vera Göhre

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  1. Vera Göhre
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Correspondence to Vera Göhre.

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Göhre, V. Immune responses: Photosynthetic defence. Nature Plants 1, 15079 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2015.79

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