• Home
• Academic Programs
  • Ph.D. Program
  • Genetic Counseling MS
  • Undergraduate
• Courses
• Faculty and Research
  • Ph.D. Trainers
  • Ph.D. Trainers by Field
  • Genetics Faculty
• Directory
• Student Resources
• Department Resources
• News and Events
• Contact

Andrew F. Bent

Professor of Plant Pathology

Address:

886 Russell Labs

Telephone:

265-3034

Email:

afb@plantpath.wisc.edu

Research Fields:

Plant Genetics

Arabidopsis

Research Interests

Disease resistance and defense signal transduction in plants

Research Description

Disease resistance in plants often involves highly specific recognition of an invading pathogen. Recognition triggers signal transduction cascades that activate plant defense responses. Defense responses can include production of antimicrobial enzymes and compounds, induction of an apoptotic programmed cell death response, and induction of a systemic immune response that causes subsequent infections to be met with a more vigorous defense response. We are working to understand the molecular basis of these processes, with particular focus on the early pathogen recognition and signal transduction events that activate defenses. We have identified genes from both the plant and the pathogen that control defense activation.

One area of research involves functional characterization of the proteins encoded by these genes. For example, we are dissecting how recognition of pathogen-derived compounds is controlled by the LRR (leucine-rich repeat) domain of plant disease resistance gene products, and are discovering other plant proteins that physically interact with these proteins to control defense activation. We are also studying a cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel that, when mutated, activates plant defenses but blocks defense-associated programmed cell death. Genomics methods such as expression profiling and gene knockouts are being used to study the ways in which specific genes contribute to activation of defenses. An ongoing research area involves new gene discovery via mutant screening. Most of the above work is done using Arabidopsis thaliana because of the superior molecular genetic resources that are available for this plant.

We also work on application of our research findings to an important food crop, soybean. This includes both disease resistance research and work to develop improved molecular genetic methods for soybean such as gene-silencing.

Representative Publications

• Dunning F.M., Sun W, Jansen K.L., Helft L, and Bent A.F., 2007. Identification and Mutational Analysis of Arabidopsis FLS2 Leucine-Rich Repeat Domain Residues That Contribute to Flagellin Perception. Plant Cell. 2007 Oct 12; [Epub ahead of print].
• Bent, A. and D. Mackey, 2007. Elicitors, Effectors and R Genes: The new paradigm and a lifetime supply of questions. Annu. Rev. Phytopathol. 45:399-436.
• Suarez-Rodriguez MC, Adams-Phillips L, Liu Y, Wang H, Su SH, Jester PJ, Zhang S, Bent AF and Krysan PJ, 2006. MEKK1 Is Required for flg22-induced MPK4 Activation in Arabidopsis Plants. Plant Physiol. 143:661-669. .
• Sun, W., F.M. Dunning, C. Pfund, R. Weingarten and A.F. Bent, 2006. Within-species flagellin polymorphism in Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris and its impact on elicitation of Arabidopsis FLS2-dependent defenses. Plant Cell 18:764-779.
• Bent, A.F., T.K. Hoffman, J.S. Schmidt, G.L. Hartman, D.D. Hoffman, X. Ping and M.L. Tucker, 2006. Disease- and Performance-Related Traits of Ethylene-Insensitive Soybean. Crop Science 43:893-901. .
• Quirino, B.F., R. Genger, J.H. Ham, G. Zabala and A.F. Bent, 2004. Identification and functional analysis of Arabidopsis proteins that interact with resistance gene product RPS2 in yeast. Physiol. Molec. Plant Pathol. 65:257-267.
• Jurkowski, G. I., R.K. Smith, I.-c. Yu, J.H. Ham, S.B. Sharma, D.F. Klessig, K.A. Fengler and A.F. Bent, 2004. Arabidopsis DND2, a second cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel gene for which mutation causes the “defense, no death” phenotype. Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 17:511-520.