Graduate Student to Discuss Aphid Resistance in Arabidopsis Thaliana in Virtual Seminar

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Hillary Fischer is a graduate student in Fiona Goggins' lab in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology.

The Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology is hosting seminar speaker Hillary Fischer, a graduate student in assistant professor Fiona Goggins' lab, today. The seminar is titled "The Influence of Singlet Oxygen and Loss of Function of Fatty Acid Desaturase 7 in the Chloroplast on Aphid Resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana."

The seminar takes place from 2-3 p.m. today, Thursday, April 22, via Zoom link:

• Meeting link: https://bit.ly/2QlwhFZ  
• Meeting ID: 832 5040 3768
• Passcode: 5703099

The seminar is open to everyone.

Hillary describes the study and results:

"Fatty Acid Desaturase 7 (FAD7) is a chloroplast-localized enzyme that alters the fatty acid content of photosynthetic membranes (Browse et al., 1986; Andreu et al., 2007). The fad7 mutant is resistant to the green peach aphid (GPA), Myzus persicae (Sulzer), and appears to cause increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS, mainly hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and superoxide (O2-), often accumulate in response to aphids and may be important in aphid-resistance (Moloi and van der Westhuizen, 2006; Sun et al., 2020). This research examined how the fad7 mutatation impacts various fitness parameters of the generalist GPA and specialist cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae. Also, the research investigated the redox status of the chloroplast in response to aphids, as ROS are unavoidable by-products of photosynthesis and could be an important source of ROS in plant-aphid interactions. This study then looked at singlet oxygen (1O2), an extremely reactive ROS that is mainly attributed to abiotic stress response. Results of this study illustrate the important role of the chloroplast in perception of plant stresses and signaling for defense responses. Furthermore, it demonstrates, for the first time, that 1O2 is involved in aphid-resistance through a chloroplast-to-nucleus retrograde signaling pathway mediated by thylakoid membrane-bound proteins, EXECUTER1 and EXECUTER2."

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