HOW DO PLANTS DEFEND THEMSELVES? TRADE-OFFS OF PATHOGEN AND HERBIVORE-INDUCED IMMUNE RESPONSES IN LEGUMES

Plant perception of pathogens and herbivores results in the activation of antagonistic immune pathways. The adaptive tailoring hypothesis proposes that this antagonism should result in the activation of varied levels of specific responses, and higher resistance to either pathogens or herbivores. The goal of this project is to address the adaptive tailoring hypothesis from an early signaling stand (rather than the canonical hormonal crosstalk between the SA and JA pathways) using the cowpea model system with known mechanisms of recognition and response to PAMPs and HAMPs to characterize trade-offs in herbivore and pathogen defenses. My specific objectives are:to characterize the In11-specific immune responses upon concomitant and sequential elicitation with flg22 of cowpea plants, andto determine the resistance of cowpea to bacterial pathogens and herbivores after elicitation with In11 or flg22.