Jack Yu

Biography

Pathogens secrete effectors to manipulate host plants and improve pathogen fitness. Some effectors are detected by plant immune receptors to trigger immune responses, but others suppress immunity to facilitate pathogenesis. My PhD project aims to understand how and why nematode effectors target the NRC network of immune receptors in solanaceous plants, providing mechanistic and evolutionary insights into pathogen strategies and the normal immune processes that they perturb.