Perception of a bacterial quorum sensing signal activates a tripartite plant immune strategy
- Danxia He
- Yang Zhou
- Meng Li
- Miao Wang
- Wenjia Yu
- Chuyang Shao
- Sunil Kumar Singh
- Meijiao Gu
- Yuhua Wang
- Jianlong Yuan
- Xiaoxuan Wu
- Shuai Zheng
- Yi Xie
- Lixian Chen
- Rafael J. L. Morcillo
- Yu Yang
- Juan Ignacio Vílchez
- Jin-Lin Zhang
- Yansong Miao
- Alberto P. Macho
- Huiming Zhang
2026-04-28
Bacterial quorum sensing (QS) signals an increasing threat during pathogenesis. How plants deploy timely defenses through QS perception is poorly understood. Here, we report that Arabidopsis thaliana perceives 2’-aminoacetophenone (2’-AA), a volatile QS signal from Pseudomonas aeruginosa , and mounts a multilayered defense. This response comprises BRI1-ASSOCIATED RECEPTOR KINASE 1 (BAK1)-dependent intracellular immunity, extracellular quorum quenching through the release of acetic acid, and ecological remodeling of the root microbiome to suppress Pseudomonas . Our findings demonstrate that plants can translate the detection of a specific bacterial QS molecule into a coordinated, preemptive disease resistance strategy.