Topic：Stupid! That’s PLANTS!-How a Bacterium See its Vegetable
Lecturer： Qian Wei，Chinese Academy of Sciences
Time： 9:30am-10:30am, July. 6th, 2017
Venue： 2-116, Bio-pharmacy Building
Abstract：To recognize the self and non-self is critical during microbial infection for both host and pathogen. To date scientists have revealed that eukaryotic cells sense the so-called pathogen-associated molecular patter (PAMP) of microbes, such as flagellin, lipopolysaccharides, peptidoglycan, and elongation factors, to trigger immune responses. However, how pathogenic bacteria detect the host environment and respond accordingly remains unclear. In recent years, we experimentally demonstrated that a plant pathogenic bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, the causative agent of black rot disease of cruciferous plant, employs receptor histidine kinases to directly sense various environmental cues, including quorum-sensing signal, iron depletion, and even plant hormone that modulates inter-kingdom signaling. Our study not only revealed that the host signal perceptions are of important to the bacterial pathogenesis, but also suggested that bacteria cells have intelligence quotient (IQ) with primordial thinking and judgement.