21-BBSRC/NSF-BIO Molecular dissection of symbiosis regulation of plant immunity

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Food production is currently achieved through unsustainable farming practices including the application of large amounts of inorganic fertilizers to provide essential nutrients for crop growth. This has led to a loss of biodiversity, degradation of land quality, and environmental pollution. Plants naturally associate with a wide variety of microorganisms, including some beneficial microbes that can infect plant roots to establish mutualistic relationships called symbioses. Among the symbiotic interactions are those between nitrogen-fixing rhizobial bacteria and legumes, as well as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) with most land plants. To establish these symbioses, plants must recognize these microbes as friends, not foes, and adjust their development and cellular physiology to accommodate microbial infection. Symbiosis also necessitates the avoidance of immunity processes, either through action by the microbes or intentional suppression by the plant. In this proposal we develop our understanding of how plant recognition of symbionts interferes with immunity processes in the plant cell, to ensure that the invading microorganisms are not rejected by the immunity processes, but instead are welcomed as symbionts.