Molecular mechanisms underlying plant-pathogen arms race

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With the human population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, the looming challenge of feeding the rapidly growing population is threatened by plant pathogens, which cause an estimated 13% loss in crop yield each year. While battling diseases is essential for sustainable agriculture and global food security, developing crops with durable resistance requires a deep understanding of the basic molecular mechanisms that underlie the dynamic interactions between plant hosts and pathogens. A major approach to unravel these mechanisms is to study pathogen effectors, which are key virulence proteins that can directly manipulate host immunity. Plants have evolved a sophisticated immune system that is robust enough to protect them from the vast majority of potential pathogens in the surrounding environment. However, successful pathogens produce effectors to defeat host immunity. Understanding how effectors render plants susceptible to pathogens provides essential insight into the fundamental principles of host-pathogen interactions. This knowledge is key towards establishing sustainable disease control strategies. This project will employ the model Pseudomonas syringae-Arabidopsis thaliana pathosystem to investigate a newly emerged aspect in plant immunity, which is centered on the metabolism of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). As an important metabolic and redox agent, specific cleavage of NAD+ has recently been shown to be an important process during the activation of immune signalling. A combination of genetics, molecular biology, and biochemical approaches will be used to advance our understanding of this new frontier in plant immunity.