Plant Autoimmunity and Microbiota: Implications for Human Health

Although most studies of autoimmunity focus on human health, there’s a lot we can learn about autoimmunity from studying other organisms such as plants. Scientists from Duke University recently identified a gene that helps arabidopsis plants maintain a healthy gut microbiome. Their work, titled Roles of microbiota in autoimmunity in Arabidopsis leaves, has implications for agriculture, gut health, and autoimmunity in humans.

This gene, when mutated in arabidopsis, gives the plant features of autoimmunity often seen in plants – they’re short, they have lesions on their leaves, and they express a high level of defense genes. The root cause of these characteristics is the abnormal leaf microbiome that results from the gene deletion. These characteristics highlight similarities between the plant and human microbiome, where human autoimmunity can be characterized by gut dysbiosis, lesions in the tissue, and altered immune responses.

Because a plant’s microbiome can be transferred into our gut when we eat fruits and vegetables, understanding plant health and their microbiome can have implications for human health.

Citation:

Cheng, Y.T., et al. (2024). Roles of microbiota in autoimmunity in Arabidopsis leaves. Nature plants. 10, 1363–1376. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01779-9