| This project going to be… | Experimental (lab/field based) |
| Email | v.ntoukakis@warwick.ac.uk |
| Position held | Professor |
| Title of Project | Bridging the gap between activated plant receptors and downstream signalling |
| Institution Department and Address | School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick |
| Coventry, Warwickshire CV4 7AL |
| United Kingdom |
| Full Name of Supervisor | Vardis Ntoukakis |
| Date of Project Commencement | 03/07/2023 |
| Duration (weeks) | 10 |
| Brief Description of Project | A major challenge for the coming years is to provide food for an increasing number of people. Minimizing agricultural losses from pathogens can substantially address this challenge. Plants have resistance (R) genes encoding immune receptors that recognize pathogen-derived molecules to activate immunity. Currently our main strategy to combat diseases in field conditions is the deployment of resistance (R) genes in crops. This resistance is often rapidly overcome in agriculture by evolving pathogen populations. However, our understanding of R genes mediated plant immunity is still in its infancy, and many important questions remain open. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are enzymes activated by R proteins but the molecular mechanisms controlling this activation are completely unknown. In work leading to this project, we identified MAPKs as part of an R protein complex in tomato. This project aims to use this tomato R protein complex as a model for the characterization of the molecular mechanisms regulating MAPKs activation in plants. In particular the student will investigate the interactions of tomato MAPKs with other know members of the tomato resistant complex (Prf, Pto, TFT3 and NRCs). So far, the lab has developed the constructs and the protocols for the expression and co-immunoprecipitation of proteins from tomato protoplasts and Nicotiana benthamiana plants. This is important since all the necessary tools needed to identify interactions within the resistant complex will be available at the start of the project. Interactions will be identified through protein co-immunoprecipitations and imaging techniques (Split-luciferase complementation imaging). |
| Attach the recommended reading for the project | 1. Ntoukakis, V., Saur, I., Conlan, B. and Rathjen, J. P. (2014) The Changing of the Guard: the Pto/Prf receptor complex of tomato and pathogen recognition. (2014) Curr. Opin. in Plant Biology 20: 69-74. |
| 2. Mundy, J. (2012). MAP kinase cascades in Arabidopsis innate immunity, 1–6. doi:10.3389/fpls.2012.00169/abstract |
| 3. Jones, J. D. G., & Dangl, J. L. (2006). The plant immune system. Nature, 444(7117), 323–329. doi:10.1038/nature05286 |
| 4. Piquerez SJ, Balmuth AL, Sklenář J, Jones AM, Rathjen JP, Ntoukakis V. (2014) Identification of posttranslational modifications of plant protein complexes. Journal of Visualized Experiments 84:e51095. |
| 5.Wang L, Yu G, Macho AP, Lozano-Duran R. Split-luciferase Complementation Imaging Assay to Study Protein-protein Interactions in Nicotiana benthamiana. Bio Protoc 11, e4237 (2021) |
