title: Toward a systems understanding of plant-microbe interactions.
abstract: Plants are closely associated with microorganisms including pathogens and mutualists that influence plant fitness. Molecular genetic approaches have uncovered a number of signaling components from both plants and microbes and their mode of actions. However, signaling pathways are highly interconnected and influenced by diverse sets of environmental factors. Therefore, it is important to have systems views in order to understand the true nature of plant-microbe interactions. Indeed, systems biology approaches have revealed previously overlooked or misinterpreted properties of the plant immune signaling network. Experimental reconstruction of biological networks using exhaustive combinatorial perturbations is particularly powerful to elucidate network structure and properties and relationships among network components. Recent advances in metagenomics of microbial communities associated with plants further point to the importance of systems approaches and open a research area of microbial community reconstruction. In this review, we highlight the importance of a systems understanding of plant-microbe interactions, with a special emphasis on reconstruction strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mine
authors.affiliation: Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience, National Institute for Basic Biology, National Institutes of Natural Sciences Okazaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Masanao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuda
keywords: experimental network reconstruction; microbial community; pathogen effector; phytohormone; plant immunity; robustness; systems biology; tunability