Research Overview

During my MSc, I studied the regulation of nodule organogenesis by a lncRNA located in within a symbiotic island and potentially targeted by NF-YA1, in the Medicago-Sinorhizobium symbiotic system, under the supervision of Dr. Andreas Niebel.
After my MSc, I chose to work on plant-pathogen interactions and secured a fellowship to develop my PhD project with Dr. Laurent Deslandes (Group leader, PhD co-supervisor) and Dr. Valérie Pacquit (Senior lecturer, PhD co-supervisor). My work aimed at uncovering the extent of bacterial effectors virulence strategies, with a particular focus on the homolog effectors PopP2 from Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum and XopJ6 from Xanthomonas campestris, both already known to target WRKY transcription factors in Arabidopsis thaliana.

• Main results

• We identified and characterized three ARID proteins as additional virulence targets of PopP2 (and possibly of XopJ6 as well) demonstrating that PopP2 can target diverse host proteins. Our findings also suggested a manipulation of chromatin remodelling complexes by PopP2 through ARIDs targeting —a virulence mechanism rarely described for effectors from phytopathogenic bacteria.
• I used proximity labelling to identify PopP2 and XopJ6 proximal proteomes in Arabidopsis thaliana. The proteomes revealed exciting additional potential targets, some of which are shared between the two effectors. A manuscript detailing our findings will be submitted shortly.
• Overall, we gained insights into the diverse host functions that could be subverted by these YopJ effectors from two distinct xylem-colonizing bacteria.