{"id":965,"date":"2013-10-10T18:48:41","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T18:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/?p=965"},"modified":"2013-11-05T20:01:58","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T20:01:58","slug":"bolstering-plants-defenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/bolstering-plants-defenses\/","title":{"rendered":"

Bolstering<\/h2>

Plants\u2019 Defenses<\/h1>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like a stealth invader, a disease-causing bacterium strikes where plants are weakest. By following the bacterium behind enemy lines, a UNL scientist is making discoveries to help improve agricultural crops\u2019 defenses against a broad range of diseases.<\/p>\n

James Alfano, Charles Bessey Professor of Plant Pathology, studies Pseudomonas syringae<\/em>, a bacterial pathogen that disables a plant\u2019s immune response by using a syringe-like mechanism to inject virulence proteins, or Type III effectors, into plant cells. These proteins attack a plant\u2019s immune response and help the pathogen infect its host.<\/p>\n

By stalking these virulence proteins to identify the pathogen\u2019s target \u2013 a plant\u2019s weak spots \u2013 Alfano and colleagues in UNL\u2019s Center for Plant Science Innovation can strengthen those areas to boost the plant\u2019s own immunity.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Alfano_OR13_079\"<\/a> \"Alfano_OR13_054\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Test plants; graduate student Anna Joe<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI look at these Type III effectors as very unique tools to discover new components of plant immunity that can\u2019t be discovered using other, conventional tools,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For example, Alfano identified one bacterial protein, HopU1, which knocks out a component that helps detect the pathogen\u2019s presence. By inducing greenhouse-grown soybeans to make more of that component, his team improved the plants\u2019 immune response. They\u2019ll soon test that immune response in field trials.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Alfano_OR13_003\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at these Type III effectors as very unique tools to discover new components of plant immunity that can\u2019t be discovered using other, conventional tools.\u201d
\n— James Alfano<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Next, the researchers will test for strengthened immunity in other agricultural crops and against a range of pathogens.<\/p>\n

Alfano recently identified another virulence protein that prevents defensive compounds from leaving cells to fight the pathogen. This discovery also may lead to enhancing immunity by boosting a plant\u2019s disease-fighting compounds.<\/p>\n

While P. syringae<\/em> is not a major costly disease in U.S. crops, the immune boost is effective against other pathogens, including many viruses and fungi, as well as bacteria.<\/p>\n

Because plant and animal immune systems have components in common, this research also may lead to improvements in human health.<\/p>\n

The National Institutes of Health\u2019s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Nebraska Soybean Board help fund this research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a stealth invader, a disease-causing bacterium strikes where plants are weakest. By following the bacterium behind enemy lines, a UNL scientist is making discoveries to help improve agricultural crops\u2019 defenses against a broad range of diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[491,1],"tags":[605,516,97,40,648,647,646,6],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-homepage","category-uncategorized","tag-center-for-plant-science-innovation","tag-james-alfano","tag-national-institutes-of-health","tag-national-science-foundation","tag-nebraska-soybean-board","tag-plant-immunity","tag-pseudomonas-syringae","tag-u-s-department-of-agriculture"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1466,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/1466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}