Dr. Takaki Maekawa

As in the animal innate immune system, it has become evident that plant cells attacked by pathogens release immunogenic signals, including metabolites, to alert neighboring cells in addition to distantly located cells to prepare for future pathogen invasions. Although neither a theoretical model nor experimental evidence is available to date, cell-to-cell communications are believed to create a spatial and temporal organization of immune signaling to combat pathogens. In particular, we are interested in studying immunogenic signals acting in a short distance that are released from dying or dead cells during host immune responses. Furthermore, based on our previous work (Jacob et al., 2018), calmodulin-binding transcription activators (CAMTAs) appear to play a central role in creating the aforementioned immunogenic signals. As CAMTAs are also integral to abiotic stress responses, a deeper understanding of the mechanism involved in cell-to-cell communications coordinated by CAMTAs will open up a new venue, which will allow the reconstruction of plant signaling and metabolic pathways, thus promoting plant health.