NOD-like receptors: a tail from plants to mammals through invertebrates

NOD Like Receptors (NLRs) are the most abundant cytoplasmic immune receptors in plants and animals and they similarly act sensing pathogen invasion and activating immune response. Despite the fact that plant and mammals NLRs share homology, with some protein structure differences, for signalling pathway, divergent evolution of the receptors has been hypothesized. Next generation genome sequencing has contributed to the description of NLRs in phyla others than plants and mammals and leads to new knowledge about NLRs evolution along phylogeny. Full comprehension of NLR-mediated immune response in plant could contribute to the understanding of animal NLRs physiology and/or pathology.