Molecular Characterization of Plant-Bacterial Interactions

长期以来，宿主-细菌相互作用一直是我研究的一个浓厚兴趣。我之前发现了一种由病原菌分泌的蛋白酶，蛋白酶IV，它能强烈激活植物的免疫反应。植物宿主中参与蛋白酶IV感知的防御反应途径此前尚未被表征。此外，我发现其他植物病原体中类似的蛋白酶也会影响作物的防御反应，这表明对该蛋白酶的研究可以揭示农业上重要的防御途径。该计划的总体目标是试图了解植物寄主和病原体在感染过程中如何作为一个综合系统运作，并利用这些研究的知识来开发新的策略来保护植物免受病原体的攻击。

Host-bacterial interaction has been a keen interest of my research for a long term. I previously identified a protease secreted by pathogenic bacteria, protease IV, which strongly activates a plant immune response. The defense response pathway in plant hosts that are involved in the perception of protease IV has not been previously characterized. In addition, I found that similar proteases in other plant pathogens could affect defense response in crop plants, indicating that the study of this protease could unveil agriculturally important defense pathways. The overall goal of the proposed program is to try to understand how plant hosts and pathogens operate as an integrated system during the process of infection and to use the knowledge from these studies to develop novel strategies to defend plants against pathogen attack.