Salicylic acid pathway in bryophytes

Supervision: The project will be supervised by Hirofumi Nakagami at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research.

Abstract: The phytohormone salicylic acid (SA) plays key roles in the immune system of angiosperms. We demonstrated that SA treatment of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha promotes infection of the necrotrophic fungal pathogen, which is similar to the case in angiosperms. However, knowledge about molecular mechanisms/components involved in SA pathway in bryophytes (non-vascular plants), which is the sister lineage to tracheophytes (vascular plants) that covers angiosperms, is lacking. In this project, we aim at unraveling SA pathway in bryophytes, and thereby investigate the origin and evolution of SA pathway in plants. We will approach this aim by primarily utilizing the model liverwort M. polymorpha by taking genetic, biochemical, and proteomic approaches.

Key publication: Matsui, H., Iwakawa, H., Hyon, G. S., Yotsui, I., Katou, S., Monte, I., ... & Nakagami, H. (2020). Isolation of natural fungal pathogens from Marchantia polymorpha reveals antagonism between salicylic acid and jasmonate during liverwort–fungus interactions. Plant and Cell Physiology, 61(2), 265-275.

Link to the Nakagami group homepage: https://www.mpipz.mpg.de/nakagami