All ETDs from UAB

Advisory Committee Chair

Shahid Mukhtar

Advisory Committee Members

John McDowell

Sang Wook Park

Stephen Watts

Karolina Mukhtar

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

2019

Degree Name by School

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) College of Arts and Sciences

Abstract

Plants are equipped with various immune responses including MAMP-triggered immunity (MTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) to fight against pathogens, while virulent pathogens release virulent proteins (effectors) and phytotoxins to compete with host immune responses. Comprehensively, plant-pathogen interactions involve multi- layered and highly coordinated processes, and dynamic regulation at both transcriptional and translational levels plays a pivotal role in plant defense. For example, NPR1, a key immune regulator, is regulated by hosts and manipulated by pathogens at different levels during different stages of plant-pathogen interaction. However, besides the competition over immune responses, bacterial pathogens also need to gain nutrients from host apoplasts for their survival and reproduction. As the most abundant energy source, sugar has come to the frontline of the nutrient war between plant and pathogen. Several sugar transporters are regulated during plant defense to increase sugar uptake back into host cells, while some are manipulated by type III effectors to contribute to host susceptibility. We found that a bacterial type III effector, HopD1, can target one specific transcription factor to limit the sugar uptake into host cells by rewiring the gene regulation.

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