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General interests
Research in the Hogenhout lab centers on the emerging and important field of Molecular-Plant-Microbe-Insect Interactions (MPMII).
Insects and other arthropods vector more than half of the ~800 plant viruses described to date, and several important groups of bacterial plant pathogens. By definition,
studies on MPMII are interdisciplinary and require expertise with at least three unrelated organisms. Integrative molecular studies on
these remain scarce but are expected to increase significantly in the coming years, thereby creating outstanding opportunities for innovative discoveries.
Specific interests
During the past years, research in my lab has mainly focused on two groups of organisms:
Phytoplasmas (bacteria that belong to the class Mollicutes, which diverged from Gram-positive bacteria through loss of outer cell wall and genome reductions).
Rhabdoviruses (bullet-shaped viruses with single-stranded negative-sense RNA genomes).
Phytoplasmas and rhabdoviruses replicate in plants and insects and establish beneficial and pathogenic interactions with these hosts.
The major objective of my laboratory is to gain a better understanding of how phytoplasmas and rhabdoviruses manipulate plants and insects, and determine host range.
It is possible that they interact with conserved proteins allowing efficient spread in both hosts. We use bioinformatics, genomics, functional genomics, biochemistry,
and microscopy to identify and characterize pathogen and host proteins involved in the interactions.
Broader impact of research
The projects described above will result in a greater understanding of fundamental cellular and developmental pathways of plants, and molecular
aspects of plant-microbe interactions, plant-insect interactions and insect-microbe interactions. The availability of model systems (Arabidopsis and Drosophila) for
both projects will allow rapid research progress, and obtained knowledge can then be transferred to agriculturally important organisms. Both projects will also provide
opportunities to learn more about the molecular biology of leafhoppers and planthoppers and other plant-feeding insects of the order Hemiptera. This is important,
because despite the importance of insects as vectors of plant pathogens, only a few research labs worldwide investigate the genomics of these insects, leaving a
deficit of basic information needed to design new management strategies.
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