Immune Receptor Function in Pathogen Recognition and Activation of Immune Signaling
Our research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of plant immunity, particularly how cell-surface and intracellular receptors recognize pathogens and initiate immune signaling, with a focus on pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) to defend against bacterial and viral infections.
Role of Inter-organellar Communications During Innate Immunity
Our lab investigates the role of inter-organellar communication during plant immunity, focusing on how chloroplast stromules form dynamic connections with nuclei to transduce defense signals, contributing to the immune response and programmed cell death.
Role of autophagy in Programmed Cell Death (PCD), Immunity and Pathogenesis
We study the role of autophagy in regulating programmed cell death (PCD) during plant immunity, focusing on how autophagy-related proteins like Atg4 and Atg8 contribute to autophagosome formation, cargo delivery, and limiting cell death to infection sites.
Development of Virus-Induced Gene Silencing (VIGS) and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Genome Editing Approaches for Gene Function Studies
Our group focuses on developing viral vector systems, including an improved TRV-based VIGS system for gene function studies and engineering TRV vectors to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 components for efficient, non-transgenic genome editing in plants.