Dissecting plant-microbe interactions at the single-cell and spatial resolution

Abstract:

Plant-microbe interactions profoundly influence agricultural productivity and ecosystem dynamics. Over the past few decades, research has revealed the molecular bases underlying these interactions, including the plant immune system and microbial strategies for colonization. However, our understanding of the cellular bases of these processes remains limited in many cases. To resolve this, we used single-nucleus multiomics and spatial transcriptomics to investigate immune responses in Arabidopsis thaliana leaves infected with bacterial pathogens. Our analyses revealed a rich diversity of immune cell states, each defined by distinct transcriptomic and gene regulatory signatures as well as spatial organisation. Notably, we identified a rare "primary immune responder" (PRIMER) cell state that emerges at the nexus of immune-active regions. These initial findings underscore a new perspective–that immune cell states are fundamental building blocks of the plant immune system. In this talk, I will present our efforts to map the diversity, regulation, and function of these states and introduce emerging approaches for dissecting plant-microbe interactions at cellular resolution and omics scale.

Bio:

Tatsuya Nobori is a Group Leader at The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) in Norwich, UK. After completing his Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (Cologne, Germany) in 2019, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Salk Institute (San Diego) as a Human Frontier Science Program Long-term Fellow before joining TSL in 2024. His lab explores the molecular and spatiotemporal dynamics of individual cells comprising the holobiont–the collective entity of the host and surrounding microbes–by developing and integrating new genomics and imaging technologies tailored to study plant-microbe interactions. You can follow him on Twitter (@nobolly) and Bluesky (@tatsuyanobori.bsky.social). Lab website: noborilab.org