Evolution of plant - microbe interactions

Abstract

Plants interact with a huge diversity of microorganisms in associations ranging from parasitic to mutualistic. Since plants colonized lands 450 million years ago, these associations have evolved in opposite directions. Mutualism has been maintained for hundreds of million years whereas the interactions with parasites are fast evolving.

Studying the interactions between plant lineages spanning 500 milion years of diversification and multiple microorganisms, our goals are to discover the plant molecular mechanisms behind mutualistic and parasitic interactions with microorganisms, to understand how they evolved, and to engineer improved symbiotic and immune abilities.