Dr. Isabel Saur

Our group particularly focuses on the mechanisms employed by the powdery mildew fungus Blumeria hordei (Bh) to colonize barley. Bh exclusively infect epidermal leaf cells of barley. For this, Bh produces specialized infection structures (so-called haustoria) that facilitate the uptake of nutrients from the plant cells and the transport of virulence factors beneficial for fungal proliferation to the plant interior. The fungus’ impressive features for the uptake of nutrients from the plant through haustorial feeding structures can provide future insight into the metabolic exchange between plants and their (microbial) environment. We investigate these mechanisms and how they affect colonization by other microbes.
Our research goals will assist the protection of economically important cereals such as barley from yield loss as a result of pathogen infection

1. Crean EE, Bilstein-Schloemer M, Maekawa T, Schulze-Lefert P, Saur IML (2023) A dominant-negative avirulence effector of the barley powdery mildew fungus provides mechanistic insight to barley MLA immune receptor activation. J Exp Bot. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erad285.
2. Saur IML, Panstruga R, Schulze-Lefert P (2021) NOD-like receptor-mediated plant immunity: from structure to cell death. Nat Rev Immunol 21(5):305-318. doi: 10.1038/s41577-020-00473-z.
3. Saur IML, Bauer S, Lu XL, Schulze-Lefert P (2019) A cell death assay in barley and wheat protoplasts for identification and validation of matching pathogen AVR effector and plant NLR immune receptors. Plant Methods 15(1). doi: 10.1186/s13007-019-0502-0.
4. Saur IML, Bauer S, Kracher B, Lu X, Franzeskakis L, Muller MC, Sabelleck B, Kummel F, Panstruga R, Maekawa T, Schulze-Lefert P (2019) Multiple pairs of allelic MLA immune receptor-powdery mildew AVRA effectors argue for a direct recognition mechanism. Elife 8. doi: 10.7554/eLife.44471.
5. Lu XL, Kracher B, Saur IML, Bauer S, Ellwood SR, Wise R, Yaeno T, Maekawa T, Schulze-Lefert P (2016) Allelic barley MLA immune receptors recognize sequence-unrelated avirulence effectors of the powdery mildew pathogen. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 113(42):E6486-E6495. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1612947113.