Mchapman5 Peer review
editArticle summary
edit- I notice that there are a few opportunities for wikipedia links in the summary. Many of the bolded words could be wiki links, or at least red links to indicate that there should be an article about them, e.g. disease triangle.
- Perhaps elaborate more on pre-formed defenses and infection induced responses here.
- Needs some citations for facts that aren't actually stated in the article, e.g. crop loss due to diseases.
Common mechanisms for disease resistance
edit- I'm sure you were already planning on doing this, but it is a good idea to elaborate on some of these bullets. Not only just giving examples of certain mechanisms, but also explaining how they act to protect the plant.
- Wiki links as well as citations would be good for this section
- Is it typical to utilize piped wiki links as you do? 'Plants' roots release chemicals that attract beneficial bacteria to fight off infections' links to 'Plant use of endophytic fungi in defense' and I'm not sure its appropriate to have large sections of text form a link.
Plant immune systems
edit- it says that plant immunity has a common origin as insects and mammals, I don't think this is true. Multicellularity evolved independently after the plant lineage branched off of the rest of the eukaryotes. If this is true then there needs to be a citation.
- You say that plant immunity is different than in animals, but then say plants can sense pathogens. That is a little misleading since animals immune systems can detect pathogens as well. I think the point you are trying to make here is that there is a difference in the mechanism that plants use to detect pathogens.
- In this sections header you say, 'as described below'. I'm not sure that is appropriate wikipedia prose.
- In this sections header you talk about PTIs and ETIs, but the section also includes two other subsections that aren't covered in the header(RNA interference and Defense against whole pathogen species). It would be nice if you could elegantly fit them in as well.
- Lots of opportunities again for wiki links
PAMP triggered immunity
edit- You implied earlier that PAMPs and MAMPs were synonyms, but this section seems to indicate that there is a distinction. Could you elaborate?
- Would it be better to include more information about what types of responses are activated in the PTI response
- Last sentence seems like it is a bridge between the PTI section and the ETI section. It might be more appropriate to put it at the beginning of the ETI section instead, since it indicates the importance of the ETI in catching pathogens that get past the PTI.
- No citations after the first sentence.
Effector triggered immunity
edit- This section is much more complete than the PAMP triggered immunity section.
- 'see below' is probably not necessary.
- What is an effector? Moving the last sentence of the PTI section to the ETI section would fix this.
- When you list NB-LLR protein names you finish the list with 'and other acronyms'. If there are too many names to reasonably list, then maybe 'among other names' would be a better way to finish it.
- Are virulence factors the same as effectors?
- Are avirulence genes the same as R genes?
- You later say pathogen avirulence genes, do you mean virulence genes. Virulent means highly infective and I would assume avirulent means the opposite.
- I don't know if I would considered plant pathogen interactions to be a signaling pathway. Possibly rephrase that sentence. Look up Red queen hypothesis
- It may be important to talk about symbiotic organisms that interact with plants e.g. legumes and nitrogen fixing bacteria or bacteria within the rhizosphere. These organisms need a mechanism(effectors?) to get around the plants defenses. In these cases the organism would not be considered a pathogen.
RNA interference
edit- How does infected cells signaling to uninfected cells improve their resistance? Does it improve or up regulate the RISC pathway? The systemic acquired resistance page doesn't say anything about RISC so the signaling pathway and systemic acquired resistance may not be appropriate for this section.
- Are there specific viruses that are affected by RNAi? viruses with dsRNA genomes are obvious targets, but are other types of viruses inhibited by the pathway.
- You say it is the result of prior infections, is viral RNA stored within the cell? Does the RNA get transferred in some way to other cells in the plant? Please elaborate on this point.
Defense against whole pathogen species
edit- Is there a term used to describe this suite of defense mechanisms or is it just called 'defense against whole pathogen species?'
- You talk about specific genes that are extremely effective against whole species of pathogens. When these genes are knocked out do they lose resistance? If another species is transformed with these genes does it become resistant? The reason I ask is how is it known that these genes alone are responsible for this resistance?
- Does inability to colonize a host mean that the host is not habitable for the bacteria? I'm not sure if that would even fall under plant immunity.
- Does pre-formed defenses include chemicals that inhibit growth? Plants produce a lot of phytochemicals, many of which may be anti-microbial. I think this may be a good topic to cover.
Plant disease resistance signaling mechanisms
edit- The title of this section is kind of a mouthful :)
- You should add a section summary
Transcription factors and the hormone response
edit- I feel like the summary could probably be a little more detailed
- Maybe it should just be the hormone response.
Mechanism of transcription factors and hormones
edit- Signaling as a role of ethylene is a little redundant
- It may be better to talk about the roles of plant hormones specifically in terms of plant defense instead of their other roles.
Regulation by degradation
edit- I'm a little confused by what is being degraded. Are you talking about the hormones being degraded or their interacting proteins?
Receptor-like kinase
edit- First sentence is really long. Maybe split it up into two or more sentences
- How are RLKs activated and regulated by these things? Wouldn't the pathogen itself bind to the RLK and activate it?
Signaling pathway in innate immunity
edit- How is this different from the RLK section? I didn't think plants had a robust adaptive immunity besides the RNAi.
Ubiquitin and E3 signaling
edit- I wouldn't say 'even in plants' since the article is supposed to be about plants.
- Your list could use a little more elaboration.
Plant breeding and disease resistance
edit- No citations in this section
- You say that diseases can be controlled by pesticides, but didn't you say herbivory was a different thing? Does it prevent insects from allowing infections to occur?
- Genetic modification is a good source of plant resistance. You talk about it later but it probably belongs in the list.
- You say that there are many exceptions to vertical and horizontal resistance but don't give any.
Host range
edit- citations
- It would be nice to have specific examples of horizontal gene transfer and the development of toxins to become pathogenic.
Epidemics and population biology
edit- I like this section, but maybe it should be included in the Plant breeding for disease resistance section.