**AWARDS ISSUED PRIOR TO JANUARY 20, 2025, WERE FUNDED UNDER PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRIORITIES AND POLICIES OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.** RESEARCHING PLANT IMMUNITY IS CRUCIAL FOR GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY, AS PLANT PATHOGENS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YEARLY BILLION-DOLLAR YIELD LOSSES. THIS PROJECT WILL GAIN MECHANISTIC INSIGHTS INTO HOW LYSINE ACETYLATION MEDIATES PLANT-PATHOGEN INTERACTIONS. PATHOGEN INFECTION ALTERS ACETYLATION, A MAJOR POST-TRANSLATIONAL MODIFICATION AFFECTING MANY CELLULAR PROCESSES, YET LITTLE IS KNOWN ON HOW THIS IMPACTS PLANT IMMUNE RESPONSE. MY RESEARCH WILL TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT PROTEIN ACETYLATION IMPACTS IMMUNE SIGNALING IN CORN, AND THIS IMMUNE SIGNALING IS MEDIATED BYTHE TRANSCRIPTIONAL COREPRESSOR RAMOSA ENHANCER LOCUS2 (REL2). THIS WORK WILL UNCOVER NOVEL MOLECULAR MECHANISMS UNDERPINNING PLANT IMMUNITY IN A KEY AGRICULTURAL CROP BY LEVERAGING LARGE-SCALE OMICS DATA VIA PROTEOMICS, AND HIGH-THROUGHPUT RNA SEQUENCING, IN COMBINATION WITH BIOCHEMICAL AND GENETIC EXPERIMENTS. THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL GENERATE LARGE-SCALE SEQUENCING DATA RELATED TO IMMUNE RESPONSES, THE IDENTIFICATION OF CANDIDATE GENES INVOLVED IN IMMUNITY AND HORMONE RESPONSES, A MODEL OF HOW PLANT PATHOGENS ARE TRANSCRIPTIONALLY REGULATED IN CORN, AND ULTIMATELY WILL LEAD TO A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF MOLECULAR PLANT IMMUNITY. ADDITIONALLY, THIS WORK WILL ENHANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW PROTEIN ACETYLATION IMPACTS BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS AND PROCESSES AND HOW IMMUNE SIGNALING IN CORN IS REGULATED. GAINING DEEPER INSIGHT INTO THE FUNCTION OF ACETYLATION IN PLANT-PATHOGEN INTERACTIONS IS VITAL FOR ELUCIDATING MECHANISMS OF DISEASE SUSCEPTIBILITY AND CAN LEAD TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF DISEASE-RESISTANT CROPS, WHICH WILL ULTIMATELY IMPROVE THE GLOBAL FOOD SUPPLY. IN ADDITION TO SUPPORTING AGRICULTURAL WORKFORCE TRAINING, THIS RESEARCH ALSO ALIGNS WITH THE USDA AFRI NIFA PROGRAM PRIORITY AREA OF PLANT HEALTH AND PRODUCTION AND PLANT PRODUCTS.