Alexandre Robert-Seilaniantz
Visiting Worker
Contact details
Email: alexandre.robert-seilaniantz@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Research interests
Plants perception of microbes involves with at least two level of detection. Plants recognize PAMPs (pathogen-associated molecular patterns) such as LPS, chitin and flagellin. The perception of these molecules triggers a broad redirection of plant gene expression and defence mechanisms. Microbes have evolved effector proteins to suppress the induction of plant defence and successfully infect the plant. Plants have also evolved R-genes whose role is to recognize effector proteins and reinitiate defence.
Previous research in the laboratory demonstrated that the surrogate PAMP (flg22) from Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 actively suppressed the mRNA of auxin receptors (Navarro et al 2006) and thus suppressing auxin signalling. Auxin is a well characterized hormone involved in plant development, but its role in plant microbe interaction is less understood. We also demonstrated that the inability of the plant to suppress the auxin signalling renders it more susceptible to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 . In agreement with this result, the constitutive suppression of auxin signalling by miR393 overexpression make the plant more resistant to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. Therefore, auxin seems to act as a pathogenicity factor during plant microbe interaction.
My interest in this project is to understand how auxin acts as a pathogenicity factor.
Selected Publications
Thara VK, Seilaniantz AR, Deng Y, Dong Y, Yang Y, Tang X, Zhou JM. (2004) Tobacco genes induced by the bacterial effector protein AvrPto. Mol Plant Microbe Interact. Oct;17(10):1139-45
Robert-Seilaniantz A, Shan L, Zhou JM, Tang X (2006). The Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 Type III effector HopF2 has a putative myristoylation site required for its avirulence and virulence functions.
Mol Plant Microbe Interact. Feb;19(2):130-8.
