Past PMB Seminars
For a schedule of all Plant & Microbial Biology events, seminars, and lectures visit our calendar.
David Nelson: Buchanan Lecture: How plants sense and respond to karrikins, a class of growth regulators in smoke
Almost two decades ago, karrikins were identified in smoke as germination stimulants of plants that emerge after fire. Karrikins have since been shown to affect many aspects of plant development, putatively because they mimic an unknown endogenous hormone. I will present our current understanding of how karrikins are perceived by plants and how karrikin signaling is attenuated through feedback control mechanisms.
Sentinels and foot soldiers in plant immunity
I will talk about ongoing projects in my lab for a better understanding of plant surveillance system and defense metabolites. In the first half I will discuss how a nucleotide-binding, leucine-rich repeat receptor (NLR) called ZAR1 senses bacterial virulence activity to activate immunity. In the second half I will discuss how plant defense metabolites protect plants by specifically targeting a...
Modeling microbial influences on animal growth and development
Microbes have been adjacent to and integral in animal evolution. Invertebrate models facilitate the collection of high-resolution data on the impact of gut microbiomes on host growth and development. We will present some of our work in live model development and deployment.
Mechanisms and evolution of adaptive mutation bias in plants
Mutations are the ultimate source of all genetic variation. In this seminar, we explore mechanisms underlying the evolution of adaptive mutation rate heterogeneity within plant genomes. We discuss what emerging discoveries mean for ideas of mutational randomness and the potential for mutation bias to shape the origins of plant diversity.
Growth and adaptation in diverse alphaproteobacteria
My laboratory investigates mechanisms of bacterial growth, division, cellular organization, and adaptation primarily using the tools of cell biology, biochemistry, and genetics. We leverage two alphaproteobacterial model species with distinct lifestyles to probe conserved and adaptive mechanisms underlying fundamental processes in bacterial cell biology: the free-living oligotroph Caulobacter...
Insights and Applications Deriving from Interbacterial Antagonism
Our lab studies the mechanisms and consequences of antagonism between bacteria. While much work has focused on toxins that mediate these interactions, in this seminar, I will be discuss recent work from our lab describing defense factors against antagonism. I will also discuss some recent efforts by our laboratory to harness the unique biology of antagonistic mechanisms for the development of...
Mining Small Molecules from Plant-Fungi Interactions
Genome-guided mining of natural products from microorganisms can lead to discovery of new bioactive molecules. In this talk, I will describe recent efforts in my laboratory to identify fungal natural products that are involved in plant-microbe interactions. Examples include: 1) discovery of a new herbicidal compound with a novel mode of action; 2) mapping the small molecule metabolome of a widely...
Taylor-White Lecture w/Toby Kiers
Underground, mycorrhizal fungi form complex networks of filamentous hyphae that connect plant roots. The fungus mobilizes phosphorus and nitrogen, and trades these for host carbon in a market-like exchange. While the ubiquity and importance of underground networks is established, we have no mechanistic understanding of how a fungus evaluates its trade environment. Fungi must integrate a complex...
Fast-Growing Cyanobacteria as Cell Factories for Sustainable Bioproduction
Cyanobacteria and other photosynthetic microorganisms hold great promise as cell factories for sustainable production of food, fuel, and materials. While these non-model organisms may be more difficult to work with as “chassis” strains for synthetic biology than certain heterotrophs, the unique advantages of autotrophs in biotechnology applications as well as the scientific importance of improved...
Winning the battle with metals and ROS: tales of a successful fungal pathogen
Research in the Culotta lab focuses on the role of metal ions and oxygen radicals in biology and disease. Metal ions such as copper, iron and manganese are not only trace nutrients but can be quite toxic.