RUI: Characterization of Arabidopsis Defense Responses to the Agrobacterium tumefaciens Type VI Secretion System

植物的细菌病原体可通过造成粮食生产的重大损失而构成严重的农业威胁。 研究植物免疫系统的一个目标是了解植物如何自然地识别和防御病原菌，并有可能将有效的抗病途径引入易感植物。 虽然某些细菌识别系统已在植物中得到广泛表征，但并非所有植物都具有感知所有微生物病原体所需的成分;某些细菌已经进化到至少在某些植物的监视机制中保持“雷达”。 该项目最近发现，致病细菌根癌农杆菌的一个很少研究的特征，即“6型分泌系统”（T6 SS），激活了植物防御，该项目将使用生物化学和遗传学方法来研究植物如何检测细菌上的T6 SS，以及植物如何在感知T6 SS后做出反应。 这些研究将阐明一种以前未知的植物保护策略，以保护自己免受细菌的侵害。 由于许多细菌都有T6 SS，因此引入T6 SS特异性识别系统可以增强植物对细菌疾病的抵抗力，减少与通常用于控制田间细菌感染的化学农药相关的不良生态和健康影响。 该项目完全整合了研究和教育，实验将主要由本科生进行，一名博士后研究员提供连续性。 通过PI教授的课程中的独立研究和调查性学期项目，40多名本科生将有机会为植物免疫系统的前沿研究做出贡献。 该项目使用植物抗病性的范例来灌输批判性思维技能，并培养实验设计的独立性，这将使学生受益，无论他们是否从事研究工作。

Bacterial pathogens of plants can pose a serious agricultural threat by causing substantial losses in food productivity. One goal of research into plant immune systems is to understand how plants naturally recognize and defend themselves against pathogenic bacteria, with the possibility of introducing effective disease resistance pathways into susceptible plants. Although certain bacteria-recognition systems have been extensively characterized in plants, not all plants have the components necessary to sense all microbial pathogens; certain bacteria have evolved to stay "below the radar" of at least some of the plant's surveillance mechanisms. Having recently discovered that a little-studied feature of the pathogenic bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, the "Type 6 Secretion System" (T6SS), activates plant defenses, the project will use biochemical and genetic approaches to investigate how the plant detects the T6SS on the bacterium, and how the plant responds once it has perceived the T6SS. These studies will elucidate a previously unknown protection strategy used by plants to defend themselves against bacteria. Since many bacteria have a T6SS, introducing a T6SS-specific recognition system could conceivably enhance the resistance of plants to bacterial diseases, with fewer of the adverse ecological and health effects associated with the chemical pesticides typically used to control bacterial infection in the field. The project fully integrates research and education, in that the experiments will be performed primarily by undergraduate students, with one post-doctoral fellow providing continuity. Through independent research and investigative semester-long projects in courses taught by the PI, more than 40 undergraduates will have the opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge research on the plant immune system. This project uses the paradigm of plant disease resistance to inculcate critical thinking skills and foster independence in experimental design that will benefit students, whether or not they pursue a career in research.