Amey Redkar: The Plant Cell First Author

Amey Redkar, first author of  “Conserved Secreted Effectors Contribute to Endophytic Growth and Multi-Host Plant Compatibility in a Vascular Wilt Fungus”

 Current Position:  

Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellow, Department of Botany, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Ganeshkhind, Pune, India

Education: 

Ph.D. in Natural Sciences, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany; M.Sc. in Botany, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India;  B. Sc. in Botany, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India.

Non-scientific Interests:

Travelling, Music

Brief bio:

My research interests are mainly centered around understanding effectors from filamentous plant pathogens and their role in making pathogens so successful in provoking plant diseases. I did my Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg under the guidance of Prof. Gunther Doehlemann exploring the role of organ-specific effectors in the corn smut Ustilago maydis. After my doctoral studies, I had an opportunity to move to Norwich, UK and join Prof. Jonathan Jones´s Lab at The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) with an EMBO LTF to undertake a project on the white rust oomycete pathogen Albugo candida. My work at TSL defined the A. candida effectorome and identified class of recognized effectors, by two distinct paralogs of intracellular plant receptors (R-genes).

In 2018, I was awarded a Marie-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship to join the group of Prof. Antonio Di Pietro at Universidad of Córdoba, Spain to initiate my own line of research to decipher cell-specific sensing in the vascular-wilt fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. My research here, took leads to understand the short crucial biotrophic phase in life cycle of F. oxysporum and have identified  ́Core Effectors ́ in Fusarium oxysporum that mediate multi-host plant compatibility which have resulted in this publication in The Plant Cell.

Currently, I have initiated my own research group at the Department of Botany, Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), Pune, India as a DBT-Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellow. Our research aims to understand the early processes fungal pathogens target to suppress root defense. Our work provides the basis to understand the establishment of compatibility in root-microbial interactions and opens up new research avenues for studying non-host interactions in soil-borne pathogens.