Plant-parasitic nematodes are a major, and in some cases a dominant, threat to global food security.
A finely tuned molecular dialogue between the plant and the nematode gives rise to the pathology, that ultimately result in crop losses. Our group aims to understand the nature of this dialogue in sufficient detail to identify sustainable routes to control. We use genetic and molecular tools to understand the inter-kingdom communication between plants and their parasitic nematodes.
Plant-parasitic nematodes have remarkable abilities to alter various aspects of plant immunity, metabolism, physiology, and development in order to cause disease. Our work in this area stems from two enabling discoveries: 1) the “DOG box”: a promoter motif that unifies hundreds of otherwise sequence-unrelated effectors that are expressed in the same gland cells; and 2) transformation of plant-parasitic nematodes: we demonstrated the first over expression experiment of any kind in any plant-parasitic nematode using “Covid19 vaccine-like technology” (mRNA encapsulated in liposomes).
Using these tools, our interests now lie in uncovering which nematode genes (e.g. effectors) are required for these abilities, how nematodes precisely orchestrate the deployment of said effectors over time and on different hosts, and how these genes and processes have evolved/are evolving.
While it may sound counterintuitive, many plant genes are required for successful parasitism. These may range from genes involved in fundamental developmental processes and metabolism to immunity, all of which can be hijacked by the pathogen to cause disease. Our work in this area aims to identify which pathways and processes in the plant are manipulated by the pathogen and how.
To do this, we deploy a range of forward and reverse genetic approaches ranging from large scale screening of diverse germplasm to detailed genomic and transcriptomics studies of specific pathologies.
Our research has intuitive pathways to impact, that we push at every opportunity. The more we understand the nature of the dialogue between plants and their parasites the more routes to control emerge. For example, by understanding which aspects of plant biology are manipulated by the parasite we can precisely engineer plants that are resistant to manipulation, and ultimately resistant to infection.
Much of our applied work focuses on Potato and the Potato Cyst Nematodes, but given that each major food crop can be parasitised by a nematode of one kind or another, the potential impact of this research is truly global.
Sebastian received his PhD in plant pathology from the University of Leeds and the James Hutton Institute in 2014. Sebastian was awarded an Anniversary Future Leaders Fellowship from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to pursue independent research at the University of Dundee and the John Innes Centre (2015-2018).
In 2018, he was awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship and established the Plant-Parasite Interactions group at the Department of Plant Sciences, and made fellow of King’s College Cambridge. In 2021 he was awarded a CUPGRA Fellowship and moved the group to the Crop Science Centre.
Other research groupsSebastian Eves-van den Akker
Head of Plant-Parasitic Interactions Group
Lukas Aaron Burkhardt
Intern
Anika Damm
PhD student
Priya Desikan
PhD Student
Estefany Reyes Estévez
Research laboratory technician
Vincent Hanlon
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Olaf Kranse
Postdoctoral research associate
Javiera Larenas
Research laboratory technician
Beth Molloy
PhD student
Victor Moura
Postdoctoral research associate
Mason Rugen-Hankey
Visiting Student Researcher
Alexis L Sperling
Postdoctoral research associate
Siyuan Wei
PhD student
Publication
The SUbventral-Gland master Regulator (SUGR) of nematode virulence
Date: 12 February 2024
Contributors: Clement Pellegrin, Anika Damm, Alexis L. Sperling, Beth Molloy, Dio S. Shin, Jonathan Long, Paul Brett, Andrea Díaz-Tendero Bravo, Sarah Jane Lynch, Beatrice Senatori, Paulo Vieira, Joffrey Mejias, Anil Kumar, Rick E. Masonbrink, Tom R. Maier, Thomas J. Baum, Sebastian Eves-van den Akker
Journal: Biorxiv
Publication
The origin, deployment, and evolution of a plant-parasitic nematode effectorome
Date: 5 January 2024
Contributors: Beth Molloy, Dio S. Shin, Jonathan Long, Clement Pellegrin, Beatrice Senatori, Paulo Vieira, Peter Thorpe, Anika Damm, Mariam Ahmad, Kerry Vermeulen, Lida Derevnina, Siyuan Wei, Alexis Sperling, Estefany Reyes Estévez, Samuel Bruty, Victor Hugo Moura de Souza, Olaf Prosper Kranse, Tom Maier, Thomas Baum, Sebastian Eves-van den Akker
Journal: Biorxiv
Publication
Unlocking the development- and physiology-altering ‘effector toolbox’ of plant-parasitic nematodes
Date: 10 July 2023
Contributors: Beth Molloy, Thomas Baum, Sebastian Eves-van der Akker
Journal: Trends in Parasitology
Publication
A low-cost and open-source solution to automate imaging and analysis of cyst nematode infection assays for Arabidopsis thaliana
Date: 12 December 2022
Contributors: Olaf Prosper Kranse, Itsuhiro Ko, Roberta Healey, Unnati Sonawala, Siyuan Wei, Beatrice Senatori, Francesco De Batté, Ji Zhou & Sebastian Eves-van den Akker
Journal: Plant methods
Publication
The genome and lifestage-specific transcriptomes of a plant-parasitic nematode and its host reveal susceptibility genes involved in trans-kingdom synthesis of vitamin B5
Date: 19 October 2022
Contributors: Shahid Siddique, Zoran S. Radakovic, Clarissa Hiltl, Clement Pellegrin, Thomas J. Baum, Helen Beasley, Andrew F. Bent, Oliver Chitambo, Divykriti Chopra, Etienne G. J. Danchin, Eric Grenier, Samer S. Habash, M. Shamim Hasan, Johannes Helder, Tarek Hewezi, Julia Holbein, Martijn Holterman, Sławomir Janakowski, Georgios D. Koutsovoulos, Olaf P. Kranse, Jose L. Lozano-Torres, Tom R. Maier, Rick E. Masonbrink, Badou Mendy, Esther Riemer, Mirosław Sobczak, Unnati Sonawala, Mark G. Sterken, Peter Thorpe, Joris J. M. van Steenbrugge, Nageena Zahid, Florian Grundler & Sebastian Eves-van den Akker
Journal: Nature Communications
Publication
Plant–nematode interactions
Date: 2 August 2021
Contributors: Sebastian Eves-van den Akker
Journal: Current Opinion in Plant Biology
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