Professor Sir David Baulcombe, Professor of Botany, Royal Society Research Professor
Gene silencing and disease resistance
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The two main topics of our work are linked by our long standing interest in the interactions between viruses and their hosts. The first topic involves protein-based innate immunity mechanisms in plants against pests and disease. In particular we are focusing on aspects of a molecular recognition process in which plants recognize the presence of a virus. Our aim in this area is to develop approaches to breeding or engineering of disease resistance in plants and to understand the evolutionary dynamics of host parasite interactions.
Virus-infected plants showing the effects of mutating a disease resistance gene. The gene in plant M1 does not protect the plant whereas the homologous gene in the other plants provides various degrees of protection.
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The second topic involves family of RNA-based processes collectively known as RNA silencing. The defining feature of these processes is the involvement of short RNA molecules that guide an Argonaute/Piwi protein to their target. We developed an interest in this process because it explains immunity and cross protection phenomena that have been known about in the virological literature for decades. The observation was that plants infected with a virus become resistant to secondary infection by the same or related viruses but not to distant or non relatives. We now know that the virus immunity and cross protection results from presence of short silencing RNAs that are derived from the viral genome. These RNAs then guide Argonaute so that it can destroy the RNA of secondarily inoculated viruses.
However, RNA silencing is more than targeted RNA degradation by Argonaute: in addition to RNA degradation there are effects at the DNA and chromatin level with a direct effect on transcription. Correspondingly the biological role of silencing extends beyond virus resistance: it protects the genome by silencing transposons, it influences chromosome structure and function and it regulates gene expression during growth, development and in response to external stimuli. We are also interested in the effect of silencing on natural variation within and between species and on epigenetic effects in evolution.
Our interests in RNA silencing link us with the Epigenome Network of Excellence and the 12M Euro SIROCCO project that is funded by the European Commission.
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Department of Plant Sciences
University of Cambridge
Downing Site Downing Street
CAMBRIDGE CB2 3EA
Email: dcb40@cam.ac.uk
Office +44 (0)1223 339386 (Voice mail)
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A paper in 1928 described how plants recover from virus disease and become resistant to secondary infection. We know now that these effects are due to RNA silencing.