Epistasis, the Spice of Life (and Evolution) - Lessons from the study of the plant immune system

Abstract: My group is addressing fundamental questions in evolutionary biology, using both genome- and phenotype-first approaches. A few years ago, we discovered that Arabidopsis thaliana is a great model for the study of hybrid necrosis. This widespread syndrome of hybrid failure in plants is caused by plant paranoia – regardless of the presence of enemies, plants “think” they are being attacked by pathogens. Over the past decade, we have studied in detail the underlying genetics, finding that often one or two loci encoding NLR immune receptors are causal. NLRs make up the most variable gene family in plants, and it is not surprising that they are often involved in genome-genome conflicts. Hybrid necrosis results when NLR genes meet that have not been co-adapted. This has in turn raised the question of the scale of NLR diversity, and our goal for the next decade is to understand the genomic and geographic patterns of immune system and especially NLR diversity. In 2018, we initiated a project, PATHO(gens in Arabi)DOPSIS, in which we aim to describe genetic diversity in the host A. thaliana and two of its important pathogens, the generalist Pseudomonas sp. and the specialist Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis. The long-term vision is to produce maps of resistance alleles in the host, and of effector alleles in the pathogens, in order to learn when the pathogens win in a wild plant pathosystem – and when the hosts prevail.

cell biologygeneticsmolecular biology

Audience: researchers in the discipline

( video )

Colloquium zooming Molecular & Cellular Biology LUMS

Series comments: Zooming Molecular & Cellular Biology Colloquium was initiated on July 28th, 2020 by the Biology department at Syed Babar Ali School of Science & Engineering (SBASSE), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). The series follows through various topics which come under the ambit of Molecular and Cellular Biology and we’ve had the pleasure and honor of hosting some of the most knowledgeable scientists from around the globe. Organizers can be reached out at 24100162@lums.edu.pk or 24100001@lums.edu.pk for the Zoom link of individual talks. All lectures are LIVE streamed on SBASSE's official Facebook page.