During my first mini project I had the opportunity to work under the supervision of Jim Beynon and Jens Steinbrenner at Wellesbourne campus. My project involved the characterization of some pathogen targets and their role in plant immunity. A small description of the project is posted below:

The plant immune response against pathogens is a vital process that involves a complex signaling network. Plants detect different molecules from pathogens, which in turn triggers immunity response in any of its two modes: effector-triggered immunity and pattern-triggered immunity; resulting in a cascade of events leading to a response. By analyzing different KO lines for proteins with a role in immunity and their response to different pathogen and stresses, we showed that the signals in immunity are complex and different forms of plant immunity share the same signaling mechanisms, but utilize them in different ways. Contrary to current ideas, Jasmonic Acid (JA) dependent response and Salicilic Acid (SA) dependent responses are not always antagonic. Each of the JA and SA signaling sectors can positively contribute to immunity against both biotrophic and necrotrophic pathogens and therefore although tcp14 and hir2 mutants presented up-regulation of JA markers, which are involved in response against necrotrophs, they were also susceptible to them. We also put into question the real role of HIR2, not being involved only in immunity but in many cellular processes as a possible scaffold protein anchored in lipid rafts, in the vicinity of R-proteins (as RPS2) and PRR.

I presented my results in a poster that can be consulted here . Note that the plants in the background are part of one of the experiments performed.