Mooney, Brian C.
(2021)
Investigating the regulation of plant immunity
by the N-degron pathway.
PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Abstract
Crop losses arising from plant diseases present a major obstacle for efforts to meet the food
demands of a growing global population, and these impacts may be exacerbated by
unprecedented rates of climate change. The Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS) contributes
to the regulation of plant immunity and a greater understanding of its role in these processes
could lead to the future development of disease-resistant crops. The N-degron pathway is a
subset of the UPS that relates the stability of a protein to the identity of its N-terminal amino
acid residue. Previous work has revealed distinct roles for the N-degron pathway as a regulator
of plant defence responses (De Marchi
et al., 2016; Gravot
et al., 2016; Vicente
et al., 2018),
although the molecular mechanisms underpinning this activity are not fully understood.
My project aims to elucidate the contribution of specific N-degron pathway enzymatic
components to immunity through complementary approaches in
Arabidopsis thaliana. These
include (i) treatments with purified pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) to
unravel the role of the N-degron pathway in pattern triggered immunity (PTI) and (ii)
inoculations with the model pathogen
Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000.
Furthermore, this project aims to establish a foundation for N-degron pathway studies in the
economically important crop
Brassica rapa and transfer knowledge obtained via the
experiments with its close relative
Arabidopsis.
Together, this work has yielded novel insights into the role of the N-degron pathway in the
PTI response of both the
Arabidopsis thaliana model and
Brassica rapa, and may indicate the
molecular mechanisms underlying its contribution to the pathogen response. These findings
should be considered during future efforts to engineer more resilient crops to ensure global
food security.
| Item Type: |
Thesis
(PhD)
|
| Keywords: |
plant immunity;
N-degron pathway; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering > Biology |
| Item ID: |
16496 |
| Depositing User: |
IR eTheses
|
| Date Deposited: |
08 Sep 2022 16:18 |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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