题目：Translational Control and Disease Tolerance: The Dance of Protein Condensates

主讲：胥国勇 教授 （武汉大学）

时间：4月18日（周五）上午9:00-10:00

地点：慧园4栋301会议室

报告摘要：Disease tolerance is an essential immune strategy against pathogens, alleviating tissue damage regardless of pathogen multiplication. However, its genetic and molecular basis remains largely unknown. In this talk, I will introduce our findings that protein condensation at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) regulates disease tolerance in Arabidopsis against Pseudomonas syringae. During infection, HEMATOPOIETIC PROTEIN-1 (HEM1) and BAX-INHIBITOR 1 (BI-1) coalesce into ER-associated condensates facilitated by their phase-separation behaviors. While BI-1 aids in clearing these condensates via autophagy, it also sequesters lipid-metabolic enzymes within condensates, likely disturbing lipid homeostasis. Consequently, mutations in hem1, which hinder condensate formation, or in bi-1, which prevent enzyme entrapment, enhance tissue damage resilience and preserve overall plant health during infection. These findings suggest that the ER is a crucial hub for maintaining cellular homeostasis and establishing disease tolerance. They also highlight the potential of engineering disease tolerance as an immune strategy to complement established resistance mechanisms in combating plant diseases. I will also introduce a genetically-encoded targeted protein degradation technology, which can remove endogenous condensation-prone proteins and improve crop performance.

个人简介：胥国勇，武汉大学高等研究院教授、博士生导师，杂交水稻全国重点实验室和湖北省洪山实验室固定成员。研究方向包括mRNA翻译调控、植物耐病性和靶向蛋白降解技术等。近年来，通过优化翻译调控技术，阐述了翻译调控在精准控制免疫基因表达中的分子机制；揭示了翻译调控因子在耐病性形成中的作用，推动了对耐病性作为植物关键免疫策略的理解；在此基础上，成功创制了免疫力提高的水稻种质资源。近5年以通讯（含共同）作者在Cell Host & Microbe （2023，2024），Nature Plants，Nature Communications，Science China Life Sciences等期刊发表研究论文12篇；在Trends in Plant Science（2024），Molecular Plant和Journal of Genetics and Genomics（2023）等期刊发表长文和短评综述5篇；申请翻译调控及植物保护技术相关国内专利5项。