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Dr. Martin B Dickman Professor, Director of Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology
107 Borlaug Center
979-862-4788
mbdickman@tamu.edu
Education
Ph.D. Plant Pathology (1986)
University of Hawaii
Research Emphasis:
Fungal - Plant Interactions
My research program centers on fundamental aspects of fungal-plant interactions. From the fungal side the focus involves the identification of genes that regulate pathogenic development and signal communication. I am also the PI on a grant for the recently completed genomic sequence of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. My other interest is in plant programmed cell death (apoptosis) and the extent to which parallels exist between plant and animal systems. We have recently shown that modulation of cell death can be an effective means to control certain diseases as well as abiotic stress. The overall goals of these studies are understanding the mechanisms that regulate plant apoptosis and implementing intervention or alternative strategies to generate transgenic plants with novel mechanisms of pathogen resistance and stress tolerance.
Recent Publications
Dickman, M.B., Park, Y.K., Oltersdorf, T., Li, W., Clemente, T., and French, R. 2001.Abrogation of disease development in plants expressing animal anti-apoptotic genes.
Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 98: 6957-6962.
Abramovitch, R.B., Kim, Y-K., Chen, S., Dickman, M.B., and Martin, G.B. 2003.
Pseudomonas typeIII effector AvrPtoB induces plant disease susceptibility by inhibition
of programmed cell death. EMBO J. 22: 60-69.
Dickman, M.B., Ha, Y.S.,Yang, Z., Adams, B., and Huang, C. 2003.
A protein kinase from Colletotrichum trifolii is induced by plant cutin and is
required for appressorium formation. Mol. Plant-Microbe Inter. 16:411-421.
Chen, C., and Dickman, M.B. 2004.
Dominant active Rac and dominant negative Rac revert the dominant active Ras phenotype
in Colletotrichum trifolii by distinct signaling pathways. Mol. Microbiol. 51: 1493-1507.
Chen, C., Harel, A., Gorovits, R., Yarden, O., and Dickman, M.B. 2004.
Regulation of sclerotial development in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is linked with pH
and cAMP sensing. Mol. Plant Microbe Interact. 17: 404-413.