Plant Immunity Research Group

Our group’s ultimate goal is to fully describe functions of genes, proteins and small molecular compounds that are essential for immunity in plants. As the first step, we focus on regulatory mechanism of immunity by studying dynamics of resistance signaling complexes and protein modifications that control defense responses. In addition, we plan to identify novel genes involved in plant immunity by isolating defense mutants in model plants. We also collaborate with the Metabolomics Research Group to isolate small molecule compounds involved in disease resistance.

Research Subjects

• Characterization of plant immunity signaling complexes
• Characterization of ubiquitin ligases involved in plant immunity
• Isolation and characterization of novel genes in plant immunity by chemical genetics
• Plant pathogen genomics
• Molecular analysis of parasitic plant Striga

Publications

1. Gan, P., Ikeda, K., Irieda, H., Narusaka, M., O’Connell, R.J., Narusaka, Y., Takano, Y., Kubo, Y., Shirasu,
   K. Comparative genomic and transcriptomic analyses reveal the hemibiotrophic stage shift of Colletotrichum fungi. (2013)
   New Phytologist 197:1236-1249.
2. Noutoshi, Y., Okazaki, M., Kida, T., Nishina, Y., Morishita, Y., Ogawa, T., Suzuki, S., Shibata, D., Jikumaru, Y., Hanada, A., Kamiya, Y., and Shirasu, K.
   Novel plant immune-priming compounds identified via high-throughput chemical screening target salicylic acid glucosyltransferases in Arabidopsis (2012)
   Plant Cell 24:3795-3804.
3. O'Connell R.J. et. al.,
   Lifestyle transitions in plant pathogenic Colletotrichum fungi deciphered by genome and transcriptome analyses (2012)
   Nature Genetics　44:1060-1065.
4. Yaeno, T., Li, H., Chaparro-Garcia, A., Schornack, S., Koshiba, S., Watanabe, S., Kigawa, T., Kamoun, S., and Shirasu, K.
   Phosphatidylinositol monophosphate-binding interface in the oomycete RXLR effector AVR3a is required for its stability in host cells to modulate plant immunity. (2011)
   Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 108: 14682-14687.
5. Zhang M., Kadota Y., Prodromou C., Shirasu K., and Pearl L. H.
   Structural Basis for Assembly of Hsp90-Sgt1-CHORD Protein Complexes: Implications for Chaperoning of NLR Innate Immunity Receptors. (2010)
   Molecular Cell 39:269-281.
6. Yoshida S., Maruyama S., Nozaki H., and Shirasu K.
   Horizontal Gene Transfer by the Parasitic Plant Striga hermonthica. (2010)
   Science 328:1128
7. Yoshimoto K., Jikumaru Y., Kamiya Y., Kusano M., Consonni C., Panstruga R., Ohsumi Y. and Shirasu K.
   Autophagy Negatively Regulates Cell Death by Controlling NPR1-Dependent Salicylic Acid Signaling during Senescence and the Innate Immune Response in Arabidopsis. (2009)
   Plant Cell 21:2914-2927.
8. Trujillo, M., Ichimura, K., Casais, C. and Shirasu, K.
   Negative regulation of PAMP-triggered immunity by E3 ubiquitin ligase triplet in Arabidopsis. (2008)
   Current Biology 18:1396-1401.
9. Umehara, M., Hanada, A., Yoshida, S., Akiyama, K., Arite, T., Takeda-Kamiya, N., Magome, H., Kamiya, Y., Shirasu, K., Yoneyama, K., Kyozuka, J. and Yamaguchi, S.
   Inhibition of shoot branching by new terpenoid plant hormones. (2008)
   Nature 455:195-200.

10. Sugiyama, N., Nakagami, H., Mochida, K., Daudi, A., Tomita, M., Shirasu, K. and Ishihama, Y.
    Large-scale phosphorylation mapping reveales the extent of tyrosine phosphorylation in Arabidopsis. (2008)
    Molecular Systems Biology 4:193