Nick Dunken
PhD Candidate
Cell death regulation and function in plant-fungal symbiosis
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The beneficial root endophyte Serendipita indica promotes growth, local and systemic resistance towards pathogens and stress tolerance in a variety of host plant species. After an initial biotrophic colonization of the root epidermis and cortex cells, S. indica triggers host cell death. During the cell death-associated phase, expression of the genes encoding for two functionally characterized effector proteins SiNucA and SiE5NT peaks. SiNucA is a nuclease, capable of hydrolyzing DNA and RNA, while SiE5NT functions as a 5’-endonucleotidase, efficiently cleaving AMP to Ado. Furthermore, SiNucA and SiE5NT can synergistically digest DNA to dAdo, which has been described as a potent cell death inducer in animal systems (Nizam et al. 2019). During his PhD thesis, Nick aims to analyze the mechanisms of S. indica-triggered cell death, investigating the involvement of dAdo production and its general role in cell death-associated plant-microbe interaction. After establishing reliable cell death readouts (Dunken et al. 2022) and identifying the nucleoside transporter ENT3 as a bottleneck in S. indica-induced cell death (Dunken et al. 2023), he is currently working on the role of TIR-NLR proteins in the interaction of plants and beneficial root endophytes.
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