Objective The plant immune system is innate – it is encoded in the germline. In natural pathosystems, plants efficiently deploy hundreds of immune receptors to detect and disarm rapidly evolving pathogens including viruses, bacteria, nematodes, insects, fungi and oomycetes. Exactly how such receptor diversity can evolve is an elusive question with important practical ramifications. A central class of plant immune receptors, called Nucleotide Binding Leucine Rich Repeats proteins (NLR), has been implicated in recognition of vastly diverse pathogen-derived effector molecules. An emerging paradigm of receptor diversification in plant genomes involves new gene fusions of receptors with host proteins that are normally targeted by pathogen effectors. Such fusion receptors ‘bait’ pathogens and their integrated domains are thought to function as ‘decoys’ or ‘sensors’ that mediate pathogen recognition. I have recently demonstrated that the mechanism of generating new receptors through gene fusions originated at least 500 million years ago in mosses and is common to all flowering plants. Here, I propose to decode the mechanisms of plant immune receptor diversification by gene fusions by studying diversity and functions of immune receptors in grasses, a young highly diversified plant family that includes the three most important crops: maize, rice and wheat. My specific aims are to: 1) Determine rates of receptor diversification within and across genomes 2) Dissect the mechanisms of receptor regulation and receptor activation 3) Generate novel plant immune receptors based on the NLR platform prone to fusions. In this MIREDI research programme, I will combine state of the art sequencing techniques and bioinformatics, molecular biology and novel reverse genetics techniques to study how plant immune system co-evolves with pathogens and what limits diversification of immunity in domesticated crops. Fields of science natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsnatural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomologynatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsnucleotidesnatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsgenomesnatural sciencesbiological sciencesmolecular biology Keywords Plant disease resistance immune receptors pathogens pathogen effectors Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2016-STG - ERC Starting Grant Call for proposal ERC-2016-STG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-STG - Starting Grant Host institution EARLHAM INSTITUTE Net EU contribution € 882 899,00 Address NORWICH RESEARCH PARK COLNEY LANE NR4 7UZ Norwich United Kingdom See on map Region East of England East Anglia Breckland and South Norfolk Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 882 899,00 Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all EARLHAM INSTITUTE United Kingdom Net EU contribution € 882 899,00 Address NORWICH RESEARCH PARK COLNEY LANE NR4 7UZ Norwich See on map Region East of England East Anglia Breckland and South Norfolk Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 882 899,00 THE SAINSBURY LABORATORY United Kingdom Net EU contribution € 617 098,00 Address Norwich Research Park, Colney Lane NR47UH Norwich See on map Region East of England East Anglia Norwich and East Norfolk Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 617 098,00