Project description
A hidden battleground against plant disease
Plants are not defenceless. They have waxy armour and rapid-response immunity. Nevertheless, some pathogens can slip inside undetected. For instance, bacteria like Xanthomonas exploit hydathodes (tiny, sap-excreting pores at leaf margins) and can slip past defences and hijack the vasculature. These overlooked entry points remain largely unstudied, leaving a gap in understanding how plants defend their most vulnerable tissues. The ERC-funded XANTHORESIST project aims to identify unique immune receptors and protective microbes. By harnessing tools such as laser-microdissection and single-nucleus RNA sequencing, the project can zoom in on the cellular level. Overall, it will design a genetic blueprint to safeguard the world’s food supply.
Objective
Plants restrict entry of pathogens through physical barriers, and via Plants restrict the entry of pathogens through physical barriers and an innate immune system that recognizes pathogenic activity and initiates immune responses to halt the infection. As pathogens employ distinct infection strategies to invade plant tissues, immune responses are not uniform but rather specific for different cell and tissue types. This highlights the need to challenge the current concept of plant immunity and expand it towards a tissue-specific perspective. Vascular pathogens belonging to the bacterial genera Xanthomonas and Clavibacter exploit hydathodes –small multicellular organs at the leaf margin, which extrude xylem sap and are directly connected to the vasculature– as entry point into the plant.
Currently, we have little understanding of the immune mechanisms in hydathodes. To address this knowledge gap and overcome technical challenges of studying molecular processes in localized and low abundant hydathode tissue, I propose an ambitious and timely project using state-of-the-art approaches: 1) My goal is to identify elicitors, which are perceived by receptors in hydathodes, triggering immunity by using activity-guided screening of pathogen extracts and mass spectrometry. 2) I aim to isolate and characterise hydathode-inhabiting commensal microbes that play a role in plant protection by, amongst others, laser-microdissection of hydathode tissue and (spatial) microbiota profiling. 3) To dissect cell-specific responses towards pathogens and commensals and to identify hydathode-specific immune pathways, recently available single nucleus RNA sequencing combined with live-cell imaging of fluorescent reporters will be applied. Overall, hydathodes are a unique system to study both tissue-specificity of plant immunity and microbiota-mediated protection. Hence, this project will contribute to a comprehensive view of plant immunity and opens a path to novel plant protection strategies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture agronomy plant protection
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA transcriptomes
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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1012WX Amsterdam
Netherlands
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