Recognizing Plant Physiology author Lu-Shen Li

Lu-Shen Li, first author of Calmodulin-Binding Protein 60b is a central transcriptional activator of immunity

Current Position: PhD candidate in Prof. Yan Zhang’s lab at Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong, China

Education: BS in College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong, China; doctoral candidate at Shandong Agricultural University

Non-scientific Interests: listening to classic music, reading

Brief bio: In September 2015, I was lucky to join the research group of Professor Yan Zhang, Shandong Agricultural University to start my research career. My doctoral research focused on the functional characterization of calmodulin-binding protein 60b in immunity. We determined that CBP60b mediates the basal expression of immune genes including CBP60g and SARD1 so that plants maintain basal immunity during plant development. Upon pathogen invasion, CBP60b are induced and activated, and positively regulates immunity by directly and indirectly activating the expression of immune genes. Therefore, we proved that CBP60b is a central transcriptional activator of immunity. Because CBP60b and its signaling pathways play such an important role in immunity, specific NLR proteins are used to monitor CBP60b and/or CBP60 downstream components to avoid immune deficiency caused by pathogen effectors. Functional loss of CBP60b mimics the effect of the effectors attack, so that the cognate NLR triggered the ETI response constitutively, which interfered with the normal development process of plants and thus led to the developmental defects.

姓名：李鲁申

目前职位：山东农业大学张彦教授课题组博士在读

教育背景：山东农业大学生命科学学院，本科/硕士；

兴趣爱好：轻音乐，阅读

科研经历简介：2015年9月我有幸进入山东农业大学张彦教授团队开启研究生涯，博士期间的主要工作集中在解析转录因子CBP60b在植物免疫中的功能。我们发现CBP60b在植物正常发育时能直接结合到不同途径中免疫基因，特别是CBP60g和SARD1的启动子上激活它们表达，维持植物基础抗性；在病原菌入侵时，CBP60b在转录水平和蛋白水平被进一步被激活，从而更强地激活免疫基因表达，使植物对病原菌产生抗性。因此，我们证明CBP60b是免疫中的主效转录因子。由于CBP60b在免疫中发挥如此重要的作用，CBP60b或其所在的信号途径受到胞内免疫受体NLR的监控，从而避免被病原菌效应因子破坏。CBP60b的功能丧失模拟了效应因子破坏的结果，使得对应的NLR触发ETI响应导致免疫响应组成型激活，干扰植物正常发育进程，进而使得植物发育缺陷。