Arabidopsis 2010:The Arabidopsis RPM1 Signaling Network: A paradigm for NBS-LRR mediated plant disease resistance.

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

Intellectual merit: Plant productivity is reduced by infection. Many pathogens contribute to loss of plant harvest. Overall yield losses to pathogens can be as high as 30%. Plants have evolved an immune system that is very different from animals like humans. This is mostly driven by the fact that plants have no circulating cells, in contrast to animals like humans. The reference plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana, is an excellent experimental system for dissection of the molecular machinery of the plant immune system. This Arabidopsis 2010 project uses a multidisciplinary approach to determine the function for a network genes in the plant immune system. The network in question includes members of the Nucleotide Binding site-Leucine-Rich-Repeat (NB-LRR) class of disease resistance proteins, and additional proteins that regulate their function. The NB-LRR proteins are the key players in the plant immune system. This project combines genomics, genetics, cell biology and biochemistry to understand how NB-LRR proteins are assembled into signal competent form before infection, and how their action is triggered by proteins produced by plant pathogens. The study of NB-LRR proteins in Arabidopsis has led to the notion that part of their activity is guided toward monitoring the cellular integrity of other host cellular machines. This proposal focuses also one of those important cellular components, the RIN4 protein. RIN4 shares a small plant-specific domain of unknown function, called NOI, with several other Arabidopsis proteins. This plant-specific protein family will also be studied. Broader impacts: Arabidopsis research has led to our current understanding of the plant immune system, and these seminal findings have, and will continue to be, expanded into crop species research. Therefore, Arabidopsis research is useful for studies of nearly all classes of pathogens that are agronomically relevant. Hence, the broader impacts of this research project are that the results will significantly inform translation to crop species. In fact, this has already begun with the cloning and utilization of the relevant genes from crops that were first identified in Arabidopsis. The use of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell biology makes this project an excellent training ground for scientists from undergraduate to post-doctoral levels. Topics investigated in this research project are incorporated into a course taught by the PI on "Strategies of Host-Microbe Interactions". The PI's lab has actively sought to engage undergraduates in research projects and the PI is involved in public policy and public debates directly related to the topics of this research.