Jonathan Jacobs
Credentials: Plant Pathology
Position title: Molecular plant-microbe interactions and evolution
Email: jonathan.jacobs@wisc.edu
Address:
885D Russell Laboratories
1630 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706
LAB WEBSITE:
FOCUS GROUPS:
Molecular & Genome Biology of Microbes; Plant Biology; Transcriptional Mechanisms
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
My laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms that govern bacterial niche-specificity and evolution. Our primary models are plant pathogenic bacteria, which threaten crop production. We currently focus on questions centered on host and tissue specificity and also attempt to determine the molecular factors that contribute to bacterial pathogen emergence in real time. We combine microbial genetics, functional genomics, cell biology and experimental evolution to understand how individual molecules determine infection outcomes at the cellular scale and drive major ecological transitions at the evolutionary scale. For example, we established that a single glycosyl hydrolase enzyme acts as a molecular switch governing whether some plant pathogenic bacteria colonize the plant vascular system or mesophyll tissue, and that repeated gain and loss of this gene across independent lineages redirects entire pathogen lifestyles. We have also demonstrated that type III secreted effector content determines host range in Xanthomonas species. We found that frequent effector loss leads to broadhost-range generalists and effector gain drives host-specialization. Ongoing work in the laboratory aims to define the molecular interfaces between individual effectors and host immune targets that set the boundaries of host range or tissue specificity.