Harnessing nanobodies to expand the recognition spectrum of plant NLRs for diverse pathogens

Abstract

The strategy to expand the recognition spectrum of plant nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins by modifying their recognition sequences is generally limited and often unsuccessful. Kourelis et al. introduced a groundbreaking approach for generating a customized immune receptor, called Pikobody. This method involves integrating a nanobody domain of a fluorescent protein (FP) into a plant NLR. Their research demonstrates that the resulting Pikobody successfully initiates an immune response against diverse pathogens when exposed to the corresponding FP.