Abstract: The plant innate immune system serves as the primary defense against pathogen invasion, with well-established frameworks for receptor recognition and signal transduction mechanisms. This review highlights recent key breakthroughs in plant immunity research from Chinese institutions: (1) The discovery of novel mechanisms driving virulence evolution through asymmetric chromosome distribution in fungi and chromosome fusion in oomycetes; (2) Elucidation of the kinase MtLICK1/2-mediated molecular switch that precisely regulates the symbiosis-immunity trade-off via phosphorylation of MtLYK3 in legumes; (3) Identification of a “sensor-executor” paradigm where tandem kinases and NLR immune receptors cooperatively activate immunity in cereal crops; and (4) Innovative strategies including co-transfer of sensor-helper NLR pairs to overcome taxonomic restrictions, and engineering of autoactive NLR chimeras activated by pathogen protease cleavage for broad-spectrum resistance. These advances collectively deepen our understanding of plant-pathogen-environment interactions across three dimensions—pathogen adaptive evolution, sophisticated host immune regulation, and receptor engineering applications. Crucially, fundamental mechanistic insights have been successfully translated into crop genetic improvement practices. The integrated findings provide a robust theoretical foundation and actionable technological framework for designing novel crop varieties with durable, broad-spectrum disease resistance to address mounting agricultural biosecurity threats.

Key words: plant immunity, plant-microbe interactions, disease resistance proteins, genetic improvement for disease resistance