Medium Term Visit to Japan: Chitin Perception in Plants

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9800099StaceyThis award provides funds to support a 4-month research visit by Dr. Gary Stacey, Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, for collaboration with Dr. Naoto Shibuya, Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Agrobiological Resources, Tsukuba, Japan. These two collaborators will be engaged in comparative studies of plant reception of chitin oligosaccharides produced by infecting bacteria or fungi. Chitin oligosaccharides (dp=7) released from fungal pathogens induce plant defense reactions in rice, while lipo-chitin oligosaccharides (dp=5) induce the development of a new plant organ, the nodule, in legumes during infection by rhizobia. The former situation is pathogenic and the latter situation beneficial to the plant. The collaborators propose that, with regard to plant chitin reception, these two systems share many common features. In order to understand the perception and transduction of signals by plants, the researchers will study the detailed properties of the receptor molecules which perceive the microbe produced signal.This project involves interdisciplinary collaboration between the PI, whose research has focused on legume-chitin recognition, and Dr. Shibuya, whose research has focused on rice-chitin recognition. The visit supported by this award will allow a further comparison of the rice and soybean chitin binding proteins. The project will be mutually beneficial because of the two-way exchanges of ideas, skills, and techniques planned by the researchers. ***