The role of chromatin remodeling ATPases in regulating plant immunity against fungal pathogens

Plants face a wide range of pathogens that pose significant threats to their growth and survival. To counter these challenges, plants have developed a sophisticated immune system that involves reprogramming gene expression as a crucial part of their defense response. This gene expression reprogramming prioritizes defense over growth-related functions and is regulated through mechanisms such as DNA methylation, histone modification, and chromatin remodeling. ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes play a central role in altering nucleosome positions around DNA, thereby affecting transcription of numerous genes involved in plant defense. However, the precise interplay between chromatin remodeling and transcription dynamics during plant immune activation is not well understood. Previous work on Arabidopsis thaliana ATPase mutants revealed altered immune phenotypes under bacterial infection. In this PhD project, a reverse genetic approach will be employed to screen six specific mutants (chr7, chr17, chr19, chr25, chr28, eda16) for their phenotype when infected with fungal pathogens targeting the plant vascular system (Fusarium oxysporum and Verticillium dahliae) and the leaf pathogen Botrytis cinerea. The project aims to investigate how infections by these pathogens affect nucleosome repositioning in the mutant lines compared to wild type Arabidopsis. Additionally, the functional characterization of immune-inducible chromatin remodeling ATPases will be explored using transcriptomic and MNase-seq/ATC-seq data from ATPase mutants with functional knockouts and overexpression. This project aims not only to identify genes with novel roles in plant immunity but also to translate our finding in crop plants thourgh gene editing.