Mehdi Kabbage
Credentials: Plant Pathology Department
Position title: Programmed Cell Death/Host-Microbe Interactions
Email: kabbage@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-0506
Address:
Russell Laboratories
1630 Linden Dr
Madison, WI 53706
LAB WEBSITE:
FOCUS GROUPS:
Plant Biology; Molecular & Genome Biology of Microbes; Cellular and Molecular Metabolism
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
The goal of my research is to understand how programmed cell death (PCD) pathways are modulated in response to abiotic and biotic insults, particularly in plants and fungi. While common core regulators of apoptotic cell death (e.g. Bcl‐2 family members, caspases, IAPs), have been identified and extensively characterized in metazoans, such core regulators (or functional equivalents) are apparently divergent in other kingdoms and in general await identification. Remarkably, however, the ectopic expression of certain animal anti-apoptotic genes in plants confers cytoprotection against a range of abiotic and biotic stressors that typically induce PCD. This suggests that functional equivalents of these genes may be present in nonanimal systems. Thus, co-opting plant/fungal pathways using these animal regulators of cell death provides a unique opportunity to uncover key biochemical players involved in PCD modulation. My program capitalizes on the ectopic expression of animal PCD regulators and other tools to uncover novel PCD regulators.