Abstract: Compositions and methods for enhancing the disease resistance of plants are provided. The invention provides compositions comprising engineered, pattern recognition receptors which comprise one or more domains derived from the receptor-like protein AtRLP23, particularly a leucine-rich repeat domain, and one or more other domains including, for example, a kinase domain from a receptor-like kinase. The compositions further comprise nucleic acid molecules encoding the engineered proteins and plants, plant cells, and other host cells comprising such nucleic acid molecules and/or the engineered proteins. The invention additionally provides methods for making and using the engineered proteins and nucleic acid molecules encoding the engineered proteins.