Project Details
Projekt
Cell-surface immune sensors – guards of plant microbiota
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Stefanie Ranf-Zipproth
Subject Area
Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems
Term
from 2018 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 401843486
Plant-associated microbiota can significantly improve fitness and disease resistance of their plant host. Hence, there is great agro-economical interest to identify microbiota members and the functional traits beneficial to plants for developing sustainable agricultural management practices. For successful deployment, we need to understand the factors influencing microbiota assembly. Plants sense pathogenic as well as non-pathogenic microbes through detection of conserved microbe-associated molecular patterns by cell-surface pattern-recognition receptors that activate pattern-triggered immunity. Supposedly, the plant immune system shapes microbial communities through monitoring microbial load and selectively regulating entry into plant tissues. This project aims to understand the role of the receptor kinase LORE as model pattern-recognition receptor in controlling the bacterial phyllosphere microbiome in Arabidopsis thaliana by investigating (1) the capability of microbiota to epiphytically and endophytically colonise leaf tissue with altered LORE expression, (2) which microbiota members trigger LORE-dependent pattern-triggered immunity, (3) the tissue- and cell-type-specific function of LORE in restricting their epiphytic growth, tissue invasion and endophytic persistence, and (4) LORE-dependent microbiota-induced resistance to pathogen infection. Gnotobiotic microbiota recolonization experiments with defined leaf-derived synthetic bacterial communities (SynComs) under environmentally controlled conditions, will allow to mechanistically link alterations in host immunity with microbiota composition and distribution in leaves. A deeper understanding of the interplay between plant immunity and microbiota will foster future deployment of beneficial microbes for engineering crop productivity and disease resistance.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
International Connection
Switzerland
