Plants are continuously exposed to diverse microorganisms in the environment, many of which can invade plants and cause diseases. Some of these plant pathogenic microorganisms infect economically important crops, leading to huge yield loss in agriculture. To fend off the invading pathogens, plants have developed an immune system to detect pathogens and restrict pathogen growth. This includes using the cell surface PRRs (Pattern Recognition Receptors) and intracellular NLRs (Nucleotide-binding domain Leucine-rich repeat Receptors) to recognize pathogen molecules and then activate immune signaling. Many of these immune receptors function as disease resistance (R) proteins that protect plants from pathogen invasion and are very useful in agriculture.

植物在生長過程中會和環境中多種的微生物有接觸，其中有許多微生物能夠感染植物並造成病害。有一些植物病原性的微生物能夠感染重要的經濟作物，造成農業上重大的損失。為了抵抗植物病原菌的侵染，植物利用其免疫系統來偵測病原菌並限制病原菌的生長。其中包含利用細胞表面的PRR免疫受體及細胞內部的NLR 免疫受體來辨識來自病原菌的分子並引發免疫訊息傳導。許多的免疫受體具有抗病蛋白的功能，能夠保護植物避免病原菌的感染，因此非常具有在農業上應用的價值。

Chih-Hang Wu's Lab at IPMB, Academia Sinica, aims to understand how the immune systems function in plants to confer resistance to different pathogens. We use solanaceous plants, such as tomato and tobacco, as the model systems to dissect the evolutionary and functional dynamics of plant immunity.

中央研究院植物與微生物所吳志航實驗室的研究目標在於了解植物的免疫系統如何作用以對抗多種不同的病原菌。我們以茄科植物，包含蕃茄及菸草，作為模式植物來分析植物免疫系統的演化及功能。