Evolutionary gain and loss of a plant pattern-recognition receptor for HAMP recognition.

The health status of a plant depends on the immune system it inherits from its parents. Plants have many receptor proteins that can recognize distinct molecules from insects and microbes, and trigger an immune response. Inheriting the right set of receptors allows plants to detect certain threats and to cope with diseases and pests. Soybeans, chickpeas and other closely-related crop plants belong to a family of plants known as the legumes. Previous studies have found that, unlike other plants, some legumes are able to respond to oral secretions from caterpillars. These plants have a receptor known as INR that binds to a molecule called inceptin in the secretions. However, it remained unclear how or when INR evolved. To address this gap, Snoeck et al. tested immune responses to inceptin in the leaves of 22 species of legume. The experiments revealed that only members of a subgroup of legumes called the Phaseoloids were able to recognize the molecule. Analyzing the genomes of several legume species revealed that the gene encoding INR first emerged around 28 million years ago. Among the descendants of the legumes that first evolved this receptor, only the crop plant soybean and a few other species were unable to respond to inceptin. The genomic data indicated that these species had in fact lost the gene encoding INR over evolutionary time. Snoeck et al. then combined data from genes encoding modern-day receptors to reconstruct the sequence of building blocks that make up the 28-million-year-old version of INR. This ancestral receptor was able to respond to inceptin in the caterpillar secretion, whereas an older version of the protein, which had a slightly different set of building blocks, could not. This suggests that INR evolved the ability to respond to inceptin as a result of small mutations in the gene encoding a more ancient receptor. The work of Snoeck et al. reveals how the Phaseoloids evolved to respond to caterpillars, and how this ability has been lost in soybeans and other members of the subgroup. In the future, these findings may aid plant breeding or genetic engineering approaches for enhancing soybeans and other crops resistance to caterpillar pests.