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Poster

Session: Session 1 Presenting Authors at Posters (Evens)

P-032 - Enhancing Pattern Recognition Receptor-mediated immunity against Phytophthora infestans in Potato

Tuesday, July 15, 2025
09:55 - 11:30  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Extracellular & Intracellular non-self recognition & signaling

Potato (Solanum tuberosum) production is severely threatened by late blight, caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans. While resistance breeding has primarily relied on the introgression of intracellular immune receptors, the efficacy of such receptors is often short-lived due to the rapid evolution of their matching effectors. Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), which detect more conserved pathogen molecules, promise greater durability.

In this study, we aim to exploit the potential of PRR-mediated immunity by integrating artificial intelligence (AI)-guided protein structure prediction with co-evolutionary analyses. We focus on the recently identified potato PRR, PERU, which recognizes transglutaminase-derived Pep13 peptides from P. infestans. PERU displays extensive genetic diversity in wild Solanum species and functional screens of P. infestans-derived Pep13 alleles across wild Solanum genotypes revealed the development of distinct recognition specificities during co-evolution. Using AlphaFold3-based modelling, we identified key residues in the PERU-Pep13 interface that appear to be crucial for Pep13 recognition. By coupling co-evolutionary studies and AI guided predictions of the PERU-Pep13 interaction with functional assays, we aim to bioengineer PERU variants to enhance Pep13 recognition across diverse P. infestans strains. We will assess the effect of the engineered PERU variants on late blight resistance through assays in potato.