Plant pathogens deliver different effector proteins into plant cells to inhibit host immune responses. Because the effectors are thought to target important immune factors in plant cells, screening for host factors that interact with the effectors is a useful approach to discover uncharacterized immune factors. In fact, many immune factors have already been identified as targets of effectors. We isolated a rice receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase OsRLCK185 as an interactor with Xanthomonas oryzae effector Xoo1488. OsRLCK185 is directly phosphorylated by the immune receptor OsCERK1, and transmits immune signals to downstream components to induce a series of immune responses including MAPK activation.
