PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Chih-Hang Wu AU - Ahmed Abd-El-Haliem AU - Tolga O. Bozkurt AU - Khaoula Belhaj AU - Ryohei Terauchi AU - Jack H. Vossen AU - Sophien Kamoun TI - NLR signaling network mediates immunity to diverse plant pathogens AID - 10.1101/090449 DP - 2016 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 090449 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/11/29/090449.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/11/29/090449.full AB - Plant and animal nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat-containing (NLR) proteins often function in pairs to mediate innate immunity to pathogens. However, the degree to which NLR proteins form signaling networks beyond genetically linked pairs is poorly understood. In this study, we discovered that a large NLR immune signaling network with a complex genetic architecture confers immunity to oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, nematodes, and insects. The network emerged over 100 million years ago from a linked NLR pair that diversified into up to one half of the NLR of asterid plants. We propose that this NLR network increases robustness of immune signaling to counteract rapidly evolving plant pathogens.