| 研究実績の概要 |
I developed two projects to elucidate molecular interaction between host plants and parasitic plants. I focus thereby of three different parasitic plants, Striga asiatica, Striga hermonthica and Phtheirospermum japonicum.
1) I characterized of a novel protein family of secreted proteins, which are conserved in at least three parasitic plants species and carry a Plant invertase/pectin methylesterase inhibitor domain. My new results show that members of this protein family specifically localized to haustoria at late stages of infection and that expression of these genes in non-parasitic plants caused to severe developmental phenotypes. These phenotypes maybe associated with altered cell wall composition or nutrient acquisition.
2) I studied host hormone responses during plant parasitism and discovered an involvement of host auxin signalling components in infection and haustoria development. I established a method to evaluate Arabidopsis infection by S. asiatica, S. hermonthica and P. japonicum and screened a collection of known Arabidopsis auxin signalling mutants for resistance against these parasitic plants. I discovered that mutants along the Solitary Root (SLR) pathway exhibited elevated levels of resistance. This work showed that parasitic plants couple infection processes to host components such as auxin signalling.
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