Anders Nilsson

Doktorand

Tel: 031-786 4805
E-post: anders.nilsson@bioenv.gu.se
Fax: 031-786 2560

Forskning

The Plant innate immune system, signaling and function

Plants are constantly under attack by pathogens such as bacteria and fungi, but unlike animals, plants lack an adaptive immune response and have to rely entirely on their innate immune system to fend of invaders.
By understanding the mechanisms of intra- and inter cellular signaling triggered by microbial pathogens, we can learn how plants recognize attackers and defend themselves on a molecular level. In the long term the knowledge can be used to design “smarter” disease resistant plants or pesticides that will help save both money and the environment.
During the PhD education I will focus my work on the plant model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Below are some of the topics that will be addressed:
• Arabidopsides are galactolipids with one or two OPDA/dn-OPDA side chains. It has previously been shown that Arabidosides accumulates during plant-pathogen interactions and that they may be involved in cellular defense response. I will try to find and characterize genes responsible for the synthesis or activation of enzymes implicated in the formation of Arabidopsides. To start with I will exploit differences in arabidopside accumulation capacity between different ecotypes of Arabidopsis. In addition, I will possibly also perform a mutant screen.
• Phosphatidic acid (PA) is thought to play a key role in plant defense. By creating higher-order mutants in PLC genes (believed to be involved in the formation of PA), I will study the relationship between pathogen attack and PA synthesis and defense.
• Micro array data have shown that the expression of many transcription factors are up- or downregulated when the plant is exposed to a virulence inducing pathogen. My job is to find transcription factors that may be of interest to us and find their cognate gene targets.