The paper reported comprehensive molecular analyses of major and early innate immune responses triggered by pathogen- or microbe-associated molecular patterns (PAMP or MAMP) in plants.

The paper elucidated the first Arabidopsis MAPK cascade and WRKY transcription factors that mediate a receptor kinase (FLS2) response to flg22 (a peptide PAMP or MAMP discovered by Thomas Boller’s group) and showed their importance in plant defense to bacterial and fungal pathogens. The study was facilitated by the development of a cell-based functional genomic analysis and new early defense gene markers utilizing the completed Arabidopsis genome sequence.

The project was supported by the National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program to carry out functional genomic analyses of plant MAPK cascade signaling. My group collaborated with the teams of Thomas Boller of the Institute of Botany at the University of Basel and Fred Ausubel of the Department of Genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The studies discovered key molecular mechanisms responsible for early defense responses that are likely important for preventing infection by a broad spectrum of potential pathogens in plants.