[Seminars] PSB event reminder

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Calendar Name: seminars
Scheduled for: Tuesday, October 12 2010, 11:00 - 12:30
Event text:    Prof Corné Pieterse
	       
	       Plant Microbe Interactions
	       Department of Biology
	       Faculty of Science
	       Utrecht University
	       
	       Utrecht
	       the Netherlands
Details:       "Plant immunity: it’s the hormones talking, but what do
	       they say?"
	       
	       ABSTRACT
	       Plants live in complex environments in which they
	       intimately interact with a broad range of other
	       organisms. Besides the plethora of deleterious
	       interactions with pathogens and insect herbivores,
	       relationships with beneficial microorganisms are
	       frequent in nature as well, improving plant growth or
	       helping the plant to overcome stress. The evolutionary
	       arms race between plants and their enemies provided
	       plants with a highly sophisticated defense system that,
	       like the animal innate immune system, recognizes
	       non-self molecules or signals from injured cells, and
	       responds by activating an effective immune response
	       against the invader encountered. Recent advances in
	       plant immunity research underpin the pivotal role of
	       cross-communicating hormones in the regulation of the
	       plant’s defense signaling network. Their powerful
	       regulatory potential allows the plant to quickly adapt
	       to its hostile environment and to utilize its resources
	       in a cost-efficient manner. Plant enemies on the other
	       hand, can hijack the plant’s defense signaling network
	       for their own benefit by affecting hormone homeostasis
	       to antagonize the host immune response. Similarly,
	       beneficial microbes actively interfere with
	       hormone-regulated immune responses to avoid being
	       recognized as an alien organism. In nature, plants
	       simultaneously or sequentially interact with multiple
	       beneficial and antagonistic organisms with very
	       different lifestyles. However, knowledge on how the
	       hormone-regulated plant immune signaling network
	       functions during multi-species interactions is still in
	       its infancy. In the past years, various genomics
	       approaches expanded our understanding of the molecular
	       mechanisms by which plants tailor their defense response
	       to pathogen and insect attack. Diverse hormones such as
	       salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene
	       (ET) play pivotal roles in the regulation of the defense
	       signaling network. Our research is focused on the
	       molecular interplay between these hormones and how their
	       interactions steer the final outcome of the plant immune
	       response.

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