Arun Alexander Anburaj
Research Focus
Plant pathogens interact with their hosts by secreting molecules like effector proteins and/or RNAs to modify plant processes. One efficient way of transporting these molecules can be through extracellular vesicles as they confer protection of its cargo which can increase the stability of the transported RNA species. Previously, full length mRNAs and small RNAs have been shown to be transported by the pathogen targeting the plant cells to establish effective infection. For my PhD, I'm studying the RNA (mRNA & sRNA) cargo of Brassicaceae smut fungi, Thecaphora thlaspeos to demonstrate the extracellular vesicles role in cross kingdom communication.
