Tandem kinase proteins and kinase-fusion architectures in plant immune system.

Genome-wide surveys identify hundreds of tandem kinase proteins across land plants, with strong signatures of positive selection in the Triticeae, highlighting rapid evolution of TKP-mediated immunity.

• Why it matters: Classical PRRs and NLR sensors alone do not fully explain how plants detect rapidly evolving pathogen effectors, motivating discovery of intracellular kinase-based receptors.
• What they did: The work synthesizes conserved sensor-switch-executor logic and uses pangenomes, effector library screening, phosphoproteomics, live-cell imaging, and machine learning to predict effector-binding surfaces and kinase–pseudokinase allostery.
• The result: These approaches enable systemic discovery and functional validation of TKPs, supporting translational strategies such as deploying wild-relative TKPs into elite cultivars and engineering activation thresholds via gene editing.

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