Juan Carlos De la Concepción

This study engineers a barley NLR receptor to enhance resistance against rice and wheat blast pathogens by improving its interaction with effector molecules.

The paper identifies a conserved selective autophagy receptor, CESAR, critical for proteostasis under heat stress in plants through cross-species interactome analysis.

The paper shows electrostatic changes in the Exo70 subunit led to its dissociation from the exocyst complex, enabling functional divergence in plants.

This paper identifies an effector from Phytophthora infestans that bridges NbTOL9a to an activated NLR to suppress immunity, revealing a novel structural and functional mechanism.

This study identifies a vacuolar quality control pathway in plants that uses ATG8ylation to protect vacuolar integrity following cell wall damage.

This study shows how the helper NLR NRC2 converts from a homodimer to a higher-order oligomer upon activation by the sensor NLR Rx, revealing the molecular mechanism of plant immune activation.

The paper bioengineers a plant NLR receptor to recognize a conserved fungal effector, resulting in durable resistance against blast fungus isolates.

This study shows that metabolic enzymes act as autophagy receptors in plants to degrade defense executors during viral infection, revealing autophagy as a tolerance pathway rather than an antiviral defense.