Current group members:
Jianqiang Wu (first from left); Ph.D. students: Christian Hettenhausen (second from left), Stefan Meldau (fourth from left), Hendrik Wünsche (sixth from left), Dahai Yang (seventh from left), and Maria Heinrich (fifth from left); Bachelor student: Yvonn Stampnik (Fachoschule, Jena); intern: Melissa Coon (Brigham Young University, USA)
Research interest:
Stress-induced early signaling in plants
Nicotiana attenuata is an annual plant habitats in North America. I am interested in the study of both biotic and abiotic stress-induced early signaling events in this plant.
· MAPK signaling cascades in plant-herbivore interaction: identification of MAPKKs and MAPKs that are involved in plant-herbivore interaction; their regulation of phytohormone biosynthesis and signaling, and their function in modulating herbivore-induced transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome changes. Elucidation of the complete MAPK signal transduction pathways in plants’ response to herbivory (Ph.D. students: Stefan Meldau, Maria Heinrich, and Christian Hettenhausen)
· Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) and stress responses: functional characterization of CDPKs in plants’ resistance to biotic stresses (herbivory and pathogen infection) using reverse genetics. (Ph.D. student: Dahai Yang)
· Function of pathogen-resistant genes in plant-herbivore interaction: characterization of the several pathogen-resistant genes in plant-herbivore interaction; their regulatory effect on herbivory-induced phytohormone biosynthesis and signaling, and furthermore, defensive metabolites. (Ph.D. student: Stefan Meldau)
· Nitric oxide (NO) signaling in plant resistance to herbivores: genetically modify the level of NO in plants (silencing genes involved in NO metabolism and regulation), and characterize the changes of plants’ resistance to herbivores on the phytohormone, secondary metabolites, and proteome level. (Ph.D. student: Hendrik Wünsche, Maria Heinrich)
· Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) effectors: examine the resistance of plants having mutated NMD effector genes to biotic stresses and genotoxicity; use genetic and chemical tools to elucidate the mechanism of these effectors in modulating plants’ stress responses. (Ph.D. student: Dahai Yang, Bachelor student: Yvonn Stampnik).