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Rathjen Group - Plant immunity
HONOURS PROJECTS 2019
RESEARCH PROJECTS (INCLUDING PhB) SECOND SEMESTER 2018
SUMMAR SCHOLARS 2018/9
We have exciting projects offering fascinating science, wet lab and bioinformatics training, and transferable professional skills - see "Projects" heading.
Our Group works on all aspects of plant immunity, characterising the fascinating interplay between host and pathogen. We study two complementary pathosystems; infection of tomato by the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae, and the devastating disease wheat stripe rust which is caused by the fungus Puccinia striiformis. We seek to understand how the plant recognises the presence of invasive microbes through detection of characteristic components such as cell wall molecules, how plant receptor complexes are activated, and the signal transduction events that transform these recognition events into immunity. We have made seminal discoveries on how pathogens try to shut down plant immunity using their complements of virulence effector molecules, and in turn how the plant has evolved sophisticated molecular mechanisms to trap these effectors and activate defenses. We are leaders in the protein biochemistry of plant signal transduction and pathogen genomics.
Click here for an overview of what we do
Click here to learn more about our awards and achievements
Click here for a list of publications
Group Leader
Divisional Visitors
Honours Student
Masters Students
ARC DECRA Fellows
PhB Student
PhD Students
Postdoctoral Fellow
Special Project Students
Selected publications
Boutrot F, Segonzac C, Chang K, Qiao H, Ecker J, Zipfel C, Rathjen J: Direct transcriptional control of the Arabidopsis immune receptor FLS2 by the ethylene-dependent transcription factors EIN3 and EIL1. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2010, 107:14502-14507.
Dodds P, Rathjen J: Plant immunity: towards an integrated view of plant-pathogen interactions. Nature Reviews Genetics 2010, 11:539-548.
GIMENEZ-IBANEZ S, HANN D, NTOUKAKIS V, PETUTSCHNIG E, LIPKA V, RATHJEN J: AvrPtoB Targets the LysM Receptor Kinase CERK1 to Promote Bacterial Virulence on Plants. CURRENT BIOLOGY 2009, 19:423-429.
Hann D, Gimenez-Ibanez S, Rathjen J: Bacterial virulence effectors and their activities. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 2010, 13:388-393.
Heese A, Hann DR, Gimenez-Ibanez S, Jones AME, He K, Li J, Schroeder JI, Peck SC, Rathjen JP: The receptor-like kinase SERK3/BAK1 is a central regulator of innate immunity in plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2007, 104:12217-12222.
Mucyn TS, Clemente A, Andriotis VME, Balmuth AL, Oldroyd GED, Staskawicz BJ, Rathjen JP: The tomato NBARC-LRR protein Prf interacts with Pto kinase in vivo to regulate specific plant immunity. Plant Cell 2006, 18:2792-2806.
NTOUKAKIS V, MUCYN T, GIMENEZ-LBANEZ S, CHAPMAN H, GUTIERREZ J, BALMUTH A, JONES A, RATHJEN J: Host Inhibition of a Bacterial Virulence Effector Triggers Immunity to Infection. SCIENCE 2009, 324:784-787.
RATHJEN J, CHANG J, STASKAWICZ B, MICHELMORE R: Constitutively active Pto induces a Prf-dependent hypersensitive response in the absence of avrPto. EMBO JOURNAL 1999, 18:3232-3240.
SCOFIELD S, TOBIAS C, RATHJEN J, CHANG J, LAVELLE D, MICHELMORE R, STASKAWICZ B: Molecular basis of gene-for-gene specificity in bacterial speck disease of tomato. SCIENCE 1996, 274:2063-2065.
WU A, ANDRIOTIS V, DURRANT M, RATHJEN J: A patch of surface-exposed residues mediates negative regulation of immune signaling by tomato Pto kinase. PLANT CELL 2004, 16:2809-2821.
PS Seminar Series - Tales from the transcriptome: Characterising FERONIA function through comparative gene expression analysis
PS Seminar Series- Immune signalling transduction from TIR-NLR resistance proteins to helper NLR proteins
PS Webinar Series- PhD Exit Seminar: Pathogen detection and microbial community compositions during fungal infections
PS Webinar Series: Co-evolutionary diversification of barley MLA immune receptors by sequence-unrelated powdery mildew AVRA effectors
PS Webinar Series: The stem rust fungus Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici induces centromeric small RNAs during late infection that direct genome-wide DNA methylation
PS Seminar Series: PhD Exit Seminar: Phylogenomics and population genetics of global lineages of the wheat stripe rust pathogen Puccinia striiformis
Abstaract - Wheat stripe rust, also known as yellow rust, is one of the most devastating diseases of wheat worldwide.
New study may help improve brain health and food security
Sam Periyannan
Research working to make wheat fungus a thing of the past
