Georgina Fabro
Post Doctoral Scientist
Contact details
Email: geor.fabro@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Research interests
Oomycete pathogens are responsible for devastating epidemics in crops over the past 200 years (Kamoun et al., 2006). To establish successful infection, they need to maintain host tissues alive avoiding, modulating or reprograming the plant PAMP Triggered Immunity (PTI) and/or Effector Triggered Immunity (ETI) through the secretion of an array of effector proteins (Ellis et al., 2006; Kamoun, 2006). The assembly of the genomes of several oomycetes (among them Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis-Hpa-) has been already done or proposed to be finished by the end of year 2008 (http://annuminas.vbi.vt.edu/). The bioinformatic analysis necessary to identify among all Hpa putatively secreted proteins, those containing a motif that indicates its delivery to the host plant cell (RXLR motif- Morgan and Kamoun, 2007), has been started in our and other laboratories using preliminary versions of the Hpa Emoy2 race genome and several candidate RXLR effectors have been identified.
Bacterial pathogens, like Pseudomonas syringae, deliver effector proteins into the host cell, via a type three secretion system (TTSS).
Dr. Jones' laboratory has shown that the P. syringae effector AvrRPS4 can be modified so that it can be used to deliver different Hpa effectors (Sohn et al., 2007). These assays are suitable for high throughput study of multiple effector candidates and permit the evaluation of the effector's function on pathogen virulence.
My work is being developed as an ERA-PG collaborative project involving our lab and Dr. Jim Beynon, Dr. Jane Parker and Dr. Guido van den Ackervecken labs.
The goal of our research project is then to improve and further exploit the potential of this modified TTSS delivery system to investigate the roles of multiple Hpa effector candidates on plant PTI and/or ETI on different accessions of A. thaliana.
Selected Publications
Tedman-Jones JD, Lei R, Jay F, Fabro G, Li X, Reiter WD, Brearley C, Jones JD.Characterization of Arabidopsis mur3 mutations that result in constitutive activation of defence in petioles, but not leaves.Plant J. 2008 Jul 23. [Epub ahead of print]
Fabro G, Di Rienzo JA, Voigt CA, Savchenko T, Dehesh K, Somerville S, Alvarez ME.Genome-wide expression profiling Arabidopsis at the stage of Golovinomyces cichoracearum haustorium formation.Plant Physiol. 2008 Mar;146(3):1421-39. Epub 2008 Jan 24.
Monti MR, Smania AM, Fabro G, Alvarez ME, Argaraña CE.Engineering Pseudomonas fluorescens for biodegradation of 2,4-dinitrotoluene.Appl Environ Microbiol. 2005 Dec;71(12):8864-72.
Giojalas LC, Rovasio RA, Fabro G, Gakamsky A, Eisenbach M.Timing of sperm capacitation appears to be programmed according to egg availability in the female genital tract.Fertil Steril. 2004 Jul;82(1):247-9.
Fabro G, Kovács I, Pavet V, Szabados L, Alvarez ME.Proline accumulation and AtP5CS2 gene activation are induced by plant-pathogen incompatible interactions in Arabidopsis.Mol Plant Microbe Interact. 2004 Apr;17(4):343-50.
Fabro G, Rovasio RA, Civalero S, Frenkel A, Caplan SR, Eisenbach M, Giojalas LC.Chemotaxis of capacitated rabbit spermatozoa to follicular fluid revealed by a novel directionality-based assay.Biol Reprod. 2002 Nov;67(5):1565-71.
