EAGER: Plant chromatin remodeling in response to the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。植物先天免疫系统是微生物病原体需要绕过以引起疾病的重要屏障。文献中的证据表明，响应病原体胁迫的宿主转录活性至少部分地由组织DNA的称为组蛋白的蛋白质的修饰控制。然而，这些病原体诱导的过程没有得到很好的理解，并没有得到充分的探讨。细菌性植物病原体假单胞菌将称为III型效应子（T3 Es）的蛋白质注入植物细胞，它需要这些蛋白质才能致病。现在看来，大多数的P. erichingae T3 E主要通过抑制植物免疫而导致植物中的疾病。T3 Es改变组蛋白的修饰，从而改变植物的转录，这似乎是合理的。识别这种类型的控制下的先天免疫反应和T3 Es可以改变这些修饰的程度将导致更好地理解细菌致病策略，它可能会揭示宿主重塑其染色质以促进基因表达的能力的新组成部分。本项目的目的是确定染色质重塑是否发生在响应不同的P. pastingae菌株，以及T3 Es是否可以改变这些修饰。为了研究染色质重塑几种不同的检测方法，包括染色质免疫沉淀（ChIP）检测和ChIP检测，然后焦磷酸测序（ChIP-Seq），以确定植物基因的表观遗传控制下响应生物胁迫。这项研究的长期目标是更好地了解植物先天免疫系统，并设计出对微生物病原体更具抵抗力的植物。更广泛的影响：该项目将有许多更广泛的影响，目前在一个标准的NSF项目，包括本科生和研究生的培训。然而，由于共同PI货车Dijk是在克雷顿大学，这主要是一个本科院校的生物系，她将能够达到更多的本科生。这些学生没有那么多的研究机会，作为学生参加研究型大学。PI已经建立了一个非正式的计划，其中一个本科生从货车Dijk实验室在克雷顿花了整个夏天的工作在阿尔法诺实验室在内布拉斯加大学。这个项目将使我们能够扩大这个本科夏季研究经验，以达到更多的学生。此外，这些学生还将回到克雷顿继续他们在货车迪克实验室的研究项目。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The plant innate immune system represents an important barrier that microbial pathogens need to circumvent in order to cause disease. Evidence in the literature suggests that host transcriptional activity in response to pathogen stress is at least partly controlled by the modification of proteins called histones that organize DNA. However, these pathogen-induced processes are not well understood and have not been adequately explored. The bacterial plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae injects proteins called type III effectors (T3Es) into plant cells, and it requires these to be pathogenic. It now appears that the majority of P. syringae T3Es contribute to disease in plants primarily by suppression of plant immunity. It seems plausible that T3Es alter the modifications of histones, which would alter plant transcription. Identifying innate immune responses that are under this type of control and the extent that T3Es can alter these modifications will lead to a better understanding of bacterial pathogenic strategies, and it may reveal new components of the ability of the host to remodel their chromatin to favor gene expression. The objective of this project is to determine if chromatin remodeling occurs in response to different P. syringae strains and if T3Es can alter these modifications. To investigate chromatin remolding several different assays including chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays and ChIP assays followed by pyrosequencing (ChIP-Seq) to identify plant genes that are under epigenetic control in response to biotic stress. The long term goal of this research is to better understand the plant innate immune system and engineer plants that are more resistant to microbial pathogens. Broader impacts: The project would have many of the broader impacts present in a standard NSF project including the training of undergraduate and graduate students. However, because Co-PI van Dijk is in the Biology Department at Creighton University, which is primarily an undergraduate institution, she will be able to reach many more undergraduates. These students do not have as many research opportunities as students attending research universities. The PIs have established an informal program where an undergraduate from the van Dijk laboratory at Creighton spends the summer working in the Alfano laboratory at the University of Nebraska. This project will allow us to scale-up this undergraduate summer research experience to reach more students. In addition, these students will return back to Creighton to continue their research projects in the van Dijk laboratory.