A paradigm for more than a decade, it has been known that host membranes respond to pathogen perception. It is now clear that the secretory and endocytic trafficking network are engaged by the plant’s immune system to actively defend against potential pathogens. Reciprocally, invasive pathogens have evolved means to utilize these trafficking pathways for the suppression of plant defences and to...
Past PMB Seminars
For a schedule of all Plant & Microbial Biology events, seminars, and lectures visit our calendar.
Maria Harrison: Tsujimoto Lecture: Reprogramming root cells for AM symbiosis
Maria Harrison. Most vascular flowering plants are able to form symbiotic associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. These associations, named ‘arbuscular mycorrhizas’, develop in the roots, where the fungus colonizes the cortex to access carbon supplied by the plant. The fungal contribution to the symbiosis includes the transfer of mineral nutrients, particularly phosphorus, from the soil to the...
Manish Raizada: In an immobile plant cell world, mobile endophytic microbes can seek, stop and destroy invading pathogens
The focus of the Raizada Lab is to develop low cost technologies that empower farmers in North America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, focusing on technologies that reduce the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides to grow corn and other crops, by replacing them with more natural, biological resources. In particular, the lack of nitrogen fertilizer limits crop production, but...
Beronda Montgomery: Seeing The Light: Color Vision and Photoacclimation in Cyanobacteria
The Montgomery Lab pursues a common research theme of understanding how individuals perceive, respond to, and are impacted by the environments in which they exist. Primary research efforts of the group are focused on the responses of photosynthetic organisms to external light cues. Additionally, Montgomery pursues this theme in the context of effective mentoring in research environments.
Robert Skelton: Science Cafe - Beyond the wilting point
California is likely to experience increased frequency of drought events as a consequence of global climate change. A tremendous challenge for plant ecologists is to understand how plant communities, such as the ecologically and culturally important Californian oak woodlands, are likely to respond to drought. Part of the solution to this challenge lies with understanding the plumbing system – the...
Kari Segraves: Cheating, community context, and coevolution in the yucca-yucca moth mutualism
Understanding biodiversity requires more than identifying the number of species on earth. We must also elucidate how species interactions govern the dynamics of communities, ecosystems, and species diversity. My lab uses a broad combination of approaches including experimental ecology, field observations, molecular phylogenetics, and population genetics to understand the role that interspecific...
Keiko Torii: Breaking the Silence - Chemical and Synthetic Approaches for Plant Developmental Biology
The Torii lab studies how plant cells coordinate proliferation and differentiation during organ morphogenesis to generate beautiful, orderly patterns. We aim to understand the molecular and genetic bases of cell-cell communication that specifies organ size, shape, and stomatal patterning through integrated approaches.
David Pride: Role of viruses in the microbiome
Our laboratory focuses on the role that microbial communities play in human homeostasis, health and disease. We firmly believe that the various microbial components of human ecosystems including bacteria, viruses, archaea, and fungi are important factors that help determine the natural history of their hosts. Furthermore, their interactions with humans or their interactions with other microbial...