Dr. Johana Stadtel geb. Misas Villamil

Research Focus

The plant apoplast is the interface where plants and microbes interplay by secreting molecules determinant for the establishment of a plant – microbe interaction. Plants secrete proteases into the apoplast that can cleave and recognize substrates, from plant or microbe origin, generating signalling components necessary for the activation of plant immunity. On the other side, microbes can secrete inhibitors or other molecules to avoid recognition. I am interested in studying the role of proteases in plant immunity and the interplay between proteases and inhibitors at the plant – microbe interface.

The five most important publications

  1. Passarge A, Demir F, Green K, Depotter JRL, Scott B, Huesgen PF, Doehlemann G, Misas Villamil JC (2021) Host apoplastic cysteine protease activity is supressed during the mutualistic association of Lolium perenne and Epichloë festucae. J Exp Bot:erab088. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erab088. Online ahead of print
  2. Misas Villamil JC, Mueller AN, Demir F, Meyer U, Ökmen B, Schulze Hüynck J, Breuer M, Dauben H, Win J, Huesgen PF, Doehlemann G. (2019) A fungal substrate mimicking molecule suppresses plant immunity via an inter-kingdom conserved motif. Nat Commun 10(1):1576. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09472-8
  3. Viñegra de la Torre N, Kaschani F, Kaiser M, van der Hoorn RAL, Soppe WJJ, Misas Villamil JC (2019) Dynamic hydrolase labelling as a marker for seed quality in Arabidopsis seeds. Biochem J 476(5):843-857. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20180911
  4. Misas Villamil JC, Toenges G, Kolodziejek I, Sadaghiani AM, Kaschani F, Colby T, Bogyo M, van der Hoorn RA. (2013) Activity profiling of vacuolar processing enzymes reveals a role for VPE during oomycete infection. Plant J 73(4):689-700. doi: 10.1111/tpj.12062. Epub 2012 Dec 28
  5. Misas Villamil JC, Kolodziejek I, Crabill E, Kaschani F, Niessen S, Shindo T, Kaiser M, Alfano JR, and Van der Hoorn RAL (2013) Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae uses proteasome inhibitor Syringolin A to colonize from wound infection sites. PLoS Pathog 9 (3): e1003281