Our research focuses on the mechanisms regulating the interactions between bacterial plant pathogens and their hosts. Specifically, we want to understand the molecular and physiological bases of pathogenesis and disease development, and are identifying and characterizing pathogen virulence factors and their targets in plant cells. We study the bacterial plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae and two of its hosts, Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato. Both pathogen and host are amenable to genetic and molecular analyses in these systems. 

We are currently focusing on investigating three main questions related to pathogen virulence strategies: 1) What are the roles of auxin, a plant hormone and microbial signaling molecule, during pathogenesis? 2) How does P. syringae strain DC3000 sense and respond to auxin? 3) What mechanisms regulate bacterial virulence gene expression during infection?

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