Systems understanding of plant-pathogen interactions through genome-wide protein-protein interaction networks

Abstract

Plants are frequently affected by pathogen infections. To effectively defend against such infections, two major modes of innate immunity have evolved in plants; pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered immunity and effector-triggered immunity. Although the molecular components as well as the corresponding pathways involved in these two processes have been identified, many aspects of the molecular mechanisms of the plant immune system remain elusive. Recently, the rapid development of omics techniques (e.g., genomics, proteomics and transcriptomics) has provided a great opportunity to explore plant-pathogen interactions from a systems perspective and studies on protein-protein interactions (PPIs) between plants and pathogens have been carried out and characterized at the network level. In this review, we introduce experimental and computational identification methods of PPIs, popular PPI network analysis approaches, and existing bioinformatics resources/tools related to PPIs. Then, we focus on reviewing the progress in genome-wide PPI networks related to plant-pathogen interactions, including pathogen- centric PPI networks, plant-centric PPI networks and interspecies PPI networks between plants and pathogens. We anticipate genome-wide PPI network analysis will provide a clearer understanding of plant-pathogen interactions and will offer some new opportunities for crop protection and improvement.