Vascular wilt diseases caused by soil-borne pathogens are among the most devastating plant diseases worldwide. The Verticillium genus includes vascular wilt pathogens with a wide host range. Although V. longisporum infects various hosts belonging to the Cruciferaceae, V. dahliae and V. albo-atrum cause vascular wilt diseases in over 200 dicotyledonous species, including economically important crops. A locus responsible for resistance against race 1 strains of V. dahliae and V. albo-atrum has been cloned from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) only. This locus, known as Ve, comprises two closely linked inversely oriented genes, Ve1 and Ve2, that encode cell surface receptor proteins of the extracellular leucine-rich repeat receptor-like protein class of disease resistance proteins. Here, we show that Ve1, but not Ve2, provides resistance in tomato against race 1 strains of V. dahliae and V. albo-atrum and not against race 2 strains. Using virus-induced gene silencing in tomato, the signaling cascade downstream of Ve1 is shown to require both EDS1 and NDR1. In addition, NRC1, ACIF, MEK2, and SERK3/ BAK1 also act as positive regulators of Ve1 in tomato. In conclusion, Ve1-mediated resistance signaling only partially overlaps with signaling mediated by Cf proteins, type members of the receptor-like protein class of resistance proteins.

Global environmental changes caused by natural and human activities have accelerated in the past 200 years. The increase in greenhouse gases is predicted to continue to raise global temperature and change water availability in the 21 century. In this Review, we explore the profound effect the environment has on plant diseases - a susceptible host will not be infected by a virulent pathogen if the environmental conditions are not conducive for disease. The change in CO concentrations, temperature, and water availability can have positive, neutral, or negative effects on disease development, as each disease may respond differently to these variations. However, the concept of disease optima could potentially apply to all pathosystems. Plant resistance pathways, including pattern-triggered immunity to effector-triggered immunity, RNA interference, and defense hormone networks, are all affected by environmental factors. On the pathogen side, virulence mechanisms, such as the production of toxins and virulence proteins, as well as pathogen reproduction and survival are influenced by temperature and humidity. For practical reasons, most laboratory investigations into plant-pathogen interactions at the molecular level focus on well-established pathosystems and use a few static environmental conditions that capture only a fraction of the dynamic plant-pathogen-environment interactions that occur in nature. There is great need for future research to increasingly use dynamic environmental conditions in order to fully understand the multidimensional nature of plant-pathogen interactions and produce disease-resistant crop plants that are resilient to climate change.