Cell wall-pathogen interactions

Emerging evidence indicates that the plant cell wall is not merely a physical barrier against invading organisms; it generates signaling molecules that elicit the host defense responses while it is also involved in sensing and transducing changes in the wall integrity into the intracellular signaling processes. Thus, the cell wall can be considered also as a sensory organelle that plays eminent roles in the plant interaction with the microbial pathogens and insect parasites.

 

It is well known that host glycoconjugants play important roles in determining the outcome of the host-microbe relationship in animals. The plant cell wall is highly enriched in complex glycoconjugants. Our research interest is to understand exactly what cell wall glycoconjugants play roles in interaction with microbes and to gain detail knowledge about the molecular basis of the interaction mediated by the cell wall glycoconjugants.

 

Host-pathogen interaction: pathogenesis

We use Arabidopsis thaliana and the necrotic fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea and the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae or Pseudomonas aeruginosa as model systems to understand the role of the cell wall glycoconjugants in the host-pathogen interaction.

 

Botrytis cinerea is a wide host range pathogen and causes a very destructive gray mould rot on the grape berry that results in large agronomic losses worldwide. This is partly due to that Botrytis secretes a wide rage of glycosyl hydrolases that degrade the cell wall polysaccharides.

 

Combination of a collection of Arabidopsis cell wall mutants and the amenability of Botrytis to genetic manipulation allow us to identify new roles of the plant cell wall polysaccharides in the defense response as well as to discover new fungal enzymes that are involved in the plant cell wall degradation.