Yangnan Gu

Title : Gating plant immunity and cell at the nuclear pore

Abstract:

Effector-triggered immunity (ETI) is a major form of plant innate immunity. Using a combined genetic, genomic and proteomic approach coupled with advanced fluorescence-EM imaging, we discovered a novel transmembrane component of the nuclear pore complex (NPC), CPR5. We found that CPR5 is an immune-responsive NPC structural modular that coordinates permeabilized central channel selective barrier during ETI activation and results in simultaneous influx of massive stress-related signaling cargos into the nucleus required for ETI execution. In addition, we found that CPR5-dependent NPC conformational change leads a non-canonical activation of core cell cycle signaling components. Activation of this signaling pathway is essential to drive ETI transcriptional responses, suggesting that conserved cell cycle regulators have evolved important roles in defens

Biography:

Dr. Yangnan Gu received his Ph.D. in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology from Indiana University Bloomington in USA. He then moved to Duke University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute for his postdoc training. He is now an Assistant Professor at Tsinghua University in China. Dr. Gu’s study focuses on the molecular mechanism of one of the most important form of plant immune responses, termed effector-triggered immunity (ETI). His research led to the discovery of a key signaling pathway controlled by the nuclear pore complex downstream of NB-LRR immune receptors during ETI activation.