Plant Biology Seminar

RNAse-Like Effectors: a useful tool to unlock plant immunity?

Plants, like all other organisms, have developed complex and effective immune systems to protect themselves against invading pathogens. Inevitably, successful pathogenic microbes need to evolve ways of overcoming plant immunity, if they are to survive and reproduce. The fungi that cause the common powdery mildews on many of our key crops are no exception to this rule.
We have found that the cereal powdery mildew fungi (Blumeria graminis) encode an extraordinarily large array of effector like proteins which they deploy during infection. The major superfamily of these effectors, is a group of proteins that resemble archetypal fungal RNases: the RNAse-Like Proteins associated with Haustoria (“RALPH”) effectors.  In this talk I will show you that these effectors represent an ancient lineage of genes that can be traced right back to the origin of the powdery mildew fungi and discuss hypotheses about what their mode of action might be.

Invited Speaker: <link https: www.imperial.ac.uk people p.spanu research.html external-link-new-window internal link in current>Pietro Spanu (Imperial College, London)
Date: Monday, April 24
Time: 4:30 pm
Place: HHU, lecture hall 6F

The PhD students will meet with the speaker after the seminar for the „PBS Lounge with Pizza and Beer" in the AG Feldbrügge seminar room (26.12.01).