This is a review of Baudin, Schreiber, Martin et al. bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/592824 posted on March 29, 2019. The authors used structural modelling to identify elements required for self-association of the NLR immune receptor ZAR1, specifically its N-terminal CC-domain ZAR1CC. They discovered that the N-terminal α1 helix and EDVID motif in ZAR1CC are important for oligomerization and function of ZAR1. This complements recent findings by Wang et al. (2019) based on cryo-EM structures, highlighting the importance of the α1 helix for the activity of ZAR1 although some differences were noted that could reflect the different experimental set ups (CC domain vs full-length protein) as discussed in the paper.