Seminarios IHSM La Mayora - Tábata Rosas

Geminiviruses (viruses with circular, single-stranded DNA genomes) are one of the major groups of plant viruses causing severe economic problems for agriculture worldwide. Geminiviruses have small genome with limited coding capacity. Despite this limitation, these viruses have mastered hijacking the host cellular metabolism for their survival. To compensate for the small size of their genome, geminiviruses encode multifunctional proteins. Geminiviral proteins recruit multiple host factors, suppress the host defense, and manipulate host homeostasis to establish infection. Traditionally, a role of Pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) in plant-virus interactions was disregarded, since viruses are intracellular parasites. Nevertheless, recent findings suggest that Receptor Like Kinases (RLKs), extracellular receptors that initiate PTI, are involved in the defense against these geminiviruses but also RNA viruses. In this seminar, we will discuss the complex molecular mechanisms of the antiviral immune system in plants, focusing on immune receptors and transduction pathways in antiviral innate immunity.