Sheng-Yang He

To flourish in a microbe-rich world, higher eukaryotic organisms have evolved sophisticated signaling, metabolic, and structural pathways configured to promote beneficial microbiomes, while simultaneously resisting pathogen attacks. Millions of years of co-evolution between hosts and microbes have resulted in a fascinating world of attack, counter-attack, deception, and hijacking mechanisms, all of which are essential to our understanding of life on Earth. In our lab, we probe these intricate host-microbe interactions using a model system consisting of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, its microbiome, and the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. Our research is designed to answer the following fundamental questions: 1) how do microbial pathogens attack and infect host plants? 2) how do environmental factors impact disease and immunity? and 3) how do plants select and maintain beneficial microbiomes? Results from our studies contribute to the buildup of the foundational knowledge required for translational research to develop long-term solutions to promote plant health and global food security.