Investigating plant responses to bacterial infection with spatial and cellular resolution

Plants can be infected by all pathogen classes. My research program investigates mechanisms controlling plant immune perception and pathogen virulence. First, I will focus on our work investigating plant responses to bacterial infection at single-cell resolution. Using a combination of single-cell RNA sequencing technology and spatial profiling, we analyzed individual leaf cells upon infection with the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. We identified pathogen responsive cell clusters programmed for differential responses in distinct areas revealing how plants spatially respond to bacterial pathogens within a leaf during compatible and incompatible interactions. Next, I will present the evolutionary dynamics of proteinaceous bacterial features (MAMPs) that can be perceived by plant surface localized immune receptors. We characterized the evolutionary trajectories of five MAMPs across 4,228 plant-associated bacterial genomes and the effect of copy number and sequence variation on plant immune outcomes. We uncovered a new mechanism for immune evasion, intrabacterial antagonism, where a non-immunogenic MAMP can block perception of immunogenic forms within a single genome.