Past PMB Seminars
For a schedule of all Plant & Microbial Biology events, seminars, and lectures visit our calendar.
Understanding the chemical language between plants and fungi
My lab seeks to understand how plants and fungi respond to small molecules called strigolactones (SLs) in the soil. SLs are essential for plants to establish symbiotic interactions with beneficial fungi and parasitic witchweed have evolved to eavesdrop on this signal, resulting in severe yield losses for African farmers. By applying molecular genetic approaches on model organisms like Arabidopsis...
Circadian Clock Control of mRNA Translation and Translation Fidelity
The circadian clock, critical to human health and drug metabolism, regulates rhythmic protein production and thus cell function and metabolism. Many proteins with robust circadian rhythms in their levels are produced from mRNAs that are not rhythmic. Using Neurospora crassa as a model, we found that most of this regulation is due clock control of mRNA translation initiation and ribosome function....
Environment by everything interactions: from antibiotic resistance, to indirect infections, and beyond
In this seminar, I will discuss how the many conceptions of “the environment” can influence microbial evolution and ecology. To do this, I use several case studies, from antimicrobial resistance, to indirect infection, and disease emergence.
Staphylococcus aureus: Portrait of a Pathogen
Dr. Missiakas’s research program examines the Gram-positive pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus anthracis.
Exploring Transcription Factor Evolution and Function in Polyploid Wheat
Whole genome duplication is widespread in plant evolutionary history including in staple crops such as wheat. Functional redundancy between duplicated gene copies can mask phenotypic effects, reducing the pool of variation available for crop improvement. I will discuss our recent work analysing duplicated transcription factors in wheat, the impacts on gene expression and the implications for...
Gut Microbiome Interactions with Vibrio cholerae Pathogenesis
The bacterium Vibrio cholerae causes cholera, a devastating diarrhea disease that affects millions of people worldwide each year. Cholera is endemic in many areas that suffer from poor sanitation infrastructure, and imposes an immense burden in terms of mortality and illness, often on those countries least able to afford it. Despite advances in understanding how V. cholerae causes disease, there...
Sensing of Bacterial 3-hydroxy Fatty Acid Metabolites by the LORE Immune Receptor Complex
Plants coexist with a microbiota that can be beneficial or detrimental to plant fitness. We aim to understand how cell surface immune receptors sense and regulate microbial colonization at the cellular and physiological levels. We have identified the cell surface immune receptor LORE in cruciferous plants that recognizes small bacterial 3-hydroxy fatty acid (3-HFA) metabolites and are...
Viruses, Polyamines, and a Side of Fries: Connected Metabolic Pathways that Modulate RNA Virus Infection
Polyamines are small metabolites crucial to RNA virus infection, but they’re also critical to cellular metabolism. We’ve discovered new connections between polyamine metabolism and other cellular metabolic pathways that RNA viruses coopt to promote their replication.
A Mutation is a Mutation is a Mutation
We are living in an era of rapid global change, and how quickly organisms can adapt to these rapid changes is an important question. Adaptation proceeds through migration and new combination of existing genetic variants, but it may also rely on new mutations. For many years, my lab has been interested in the rate and spectrum of spontaneous mutations. We were the first to measure these in...