Pathogen-induced plant diseases are among the greatest deterrents to agriculture worldwide. A network of defense genes detects pathogen infection and activates defense responses. Identification and characterization of such genes is key to advance our understanding of defense mechanisms and further help us to design strategies to enhance disease resistance in plants. However, it remains challenging to identify which genes regulate defense responses, decipher how these genes affect antimicrobial activities, and determine how the defense regulatory network is coordinated.

We aim to identify novel defense related genes and elucidate their function in regulating plant responses to pathogen infection. We exploit Arabidopsis, a powerful model system, in our investigations. Arabidopsis is a small herbaceous plant that can be easily grown within limited space. It has a short life cycle and extremely well characterized genetics. In addition, Arabidopsis has a relatively small, fully sequenced genome, and can be easily manipulated at the physiological, genetic and molecular levels. As all higher plants are believed to share similar innate immunity, knowledge on defense mechanisms obtained from Arabidopsis can be readily applied to other plants and enable us to better control diseases in agriculturally important crops.