Dr.. Fabro made a stay in Germany
Dr. Georgina Fabro was awarded with a fellowship from the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, for a short-term training stay at the University of Osnabrück, Germany.
Georgina studies plant defenses against bacterial pathogens. Phytopathogens such as bacteria, fungi and oomycetes that feed on plants use a variety of molecules to colonize their hosts. “Effector” proteins secreted by pathogens and delivered into plant cells play pivotal roles in establishing a successful infection. Her study is of great relevance for the generation of knowledge that allows improvement of crop resistance to pests.
To contribute to this point, she will characterize the roles of RxLR effector proteins from the oomycete model pathogen Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis (Hpa) -and their orthologs from Phytophthora infestans as well as effectors from the fungus Golovinomyces orontii – over the plant defence systems and their growth and development programs. Specifically, she will study the interaction between the nuclear-localized effector HaRxL106 of Hpa and the transcription factors BIM1 and IAA11 involved in the brassinosteroid (BRs) and auxin hormonal pathways signalling in Arabidopsis. These plant proteins are also targets of a G. orontii effector, creating an opportunity to investigate how and why effectors from different kingdoms (oomyces and fungi) target the same host proteins.