Plant and human pathogens utilize type III secretion systems to inject effector proteins into host cells. Inplants, effectors can elicit a hypersensitive response causing rapid cell death to contain bacterial infection,adjust plant defenses, and modulate host metabolism to be beneficial for pathogenesis. Prior work on therole of effectors in bacterial fitness utilized models that bypassed initial host-pathogen interactions on leafsurfaces. This study will examine the role of effectors in the fitness of pathogens on leaf surfaces. Effectorexpression of Pseudomonas syringae during the epiphytic association of P. syringae on tobacco plants willbe examined under varying growth conditions. Effector deletion mutants will be examined to determinewhether particular effectors are required for epiphytic survival of P. syringae. The effect of known defensemechanisms on epiphytic populations will be studied using tobacco with silenced defense genes.Understanding the role of effectors in epiphytic growth of bacteria will better allow us to understand plantpathogenesis and devise novel control strategies.
| Lee, Jiyoung; Teitzel, Gail M; Greenberg, Jean T (2012) SGT1b is required for HopZ3-mediated suppression of the epiphytic growth of Pseudomonas syringae on N. benthamiana. Plant Signal Behav 7:1129-31 |
| Lee, Jiyoung; Teitzel, Gail M; Munkvold, Kathy et al. (2012) Type III secretion and effectors shape the survival and growth pattern of Pseudomonas syringae on leaf surfaces. Plant Physiol 158:1803-18 |
