Abstract:
Cytokinins are small molecule plant hormones that control every aspect of plant growth and development. Their function in mediating plant susceptibility to plant pathogens is well known. We studied the contrary and found that the interaction between cytokinins and salicylic acid pathways promote plant resistance to pathogen infection. We explored ways in which cytokinin signaling could crosstalk with plant immune networks. Some of these networks are modulated by pathogens to propagate disease, whereas others help the host to mitigate an infection. Besides plants, cytokinins are also shown to be involved in animal/human microbial pathogenesis. I would like to highlight these interesting developments in the field of plant cytokinin biology.
Biography:
Dr. Muhammad Naseem has been working as Assistant Professor at the College of Natural and Health Sciences Zayed University Abu Dhabi since January 2018. Prior to Zayed University Abu Dhabi Dr. Naseem was working as Assistant Professor at Bogacizi University Istanbul as well as a Fellow Research Scientist at the Department of Bioinformatics, University of Wuerzburg. He completed his PhD in 2009 from the University of Wuerzburg Germany on the role of a small-molecule hormone cytokinin in plant response to biotic stresses. To further study the extensive crosstalk of cytokinin signaling to plant hormone networks, he then joined the group of functional genomics and systems biology of the University of Wuerzburg as a Research Scientist. During his doctoral and postdoctoral stay, he got training opportunities at the International Center of Genetics Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste and EBI-EMBL Cambridge. He produced a string of publications as principal/corresponding author in high-ranking research journals on the role of cytokinins plant immunity. His research interests involve the accomplishment of Arabidopsis Immune Signaling Network model encompassing factors of the host as well as pathogens, the analysis of large-cellular-interactomes as well as the reconstruction of .Genome Scale Metabolic networks to dissect the adaptation mechanisms in plants against environmental stresses. Moreover, he is also interested in investigating cross-kingdom organismal communication mediated by cytokinins
