Resistance to Ralstonia solanacearum in Arabidopsis thaliana is conferred by the recessive RRS1-R gene, a member of a novel family of resistance genes

Abstract
The identification of two Arabidopsis thaliana genes involved in determining recessive resistance to several strains of the causal agent of bacterial wilt, Ralstonia solanacearum , is reported. Dominant ( RRS1-S ) and recessive ( RRS1-R ) alleles from susceptible and resistant accessions encode highly similar predicted proteins differing in length and which present a novel structure combining domains found in plant Toll-IL-1 receptor–nucleotide binding site–leucin-rich repeat resistance proteins and a WRKY motif characteristic of some plant transcriptional factors. Although genetically defined as a recessive allele, RRS1-R behaves as a dominant resistance gene in transgenic plants. Sequence analysis of the RRS1 genes present in two homozygous intragenic recombinant lines indicates that several domains of RRS1-R are essential for its resistance function. Additionally, RRS1-R -mediated resistance is partially salicylic acid- and NDR1-dependent, suggesting the existence of similar signaling pathways to those controlled by resistance genes in specific resistance.