Subgroup Defense Signaling

 

The main interest of our group is the cellular signaling of immune priming in plants. Priming involves the accumulation of latent signalling components such as mitogen-activated protein kinases (MPKs), which are not activated until stress exposure occurs. Our goal is to broaden the molecular understanding of how mitogen-activated protein kinases, which are activated by various environmental stimuli, control the biological response in a highly specific manner. To this end, we have developed phosphoproteomics techniques that allow us to characterize low-stoichiometric phosphorylation events of proteins and proteomics tools for the comprehensive study of plant protein interaction networks.

Defense Signalling Projects

• Functional analysis of identified MPK substrates and protein interaction partners in Arabidopsis
• Phosphoproteins that regulate the immune defence of primed plants.