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.

Selected Publications

Dickman, Marty, Williams, B. Li, Yurong, de Figuerido, P., and Wolpert, T.L. 2017.  Don’t Fear the Reaper–Reassessing Plant Programmed Cell Death Paradigms. Nature Plants 10.1038/s41477-017-0020-x.

Li, Yurong and Dickman, M.B.  2016. Processing of AtBAG6 Triggers Autophagy and Fungal Resistance. Plant Signaling and Behavior, DOI:10.1080/15592324.2016.117699

Li, Y. R., Kabbage, M., Liu, W. D., and Dickman, M. B. 2016. Aspartyl protease mediated cleavage of At-BAG6 is necessary for autophagy and fungal resistance in plants. The Plant Cell  28:233-247.

Dickman, M.B. and de Figuerido, p. 2016 Plant Disease: Autophagy Under Attack. eLife 5:e10856.

Kabbage, M., Kessens, R., and Dickman, M.B. 2016. A plant Bcl-2 associated athanogene is proteolytically activated to confer fungal resistance. Microbial Cell 3: 224-226.

Kabbage, M., Yarden O. and Dickman, M.B. 2015. Pathogenic attributes of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum: Switching from a biotrophic to necrotrophic lifestyle. Plant Science 233:53-60c

Yarden, O., Veluchamy, S., Dickman, M.B. and Kabbage, M. 2014. Sclerotinia sclerotiorum catalase SCAT1 increases tolerance to oxidative stress, regulates ergosterol levels and controls pathogenic development. Physiol. Mol. Plant Pathol. 85:34-41.

Dickman, M.B. and Fluhr, R. 2013. Centrality of host cell death in plant-microbe interactions. Annu. Rev. Phytopathol. 51: 25.1-25.28.

Kabbage, M; Williams, B., Dickman, MB. 2013. Cell death control: The interplay of apoptosis and autophagy in the pathogenicity of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. PLoS Pathogens 9: e1003287

Dickman, M.B. and Fluhr, R. 2013. Centrality of host cell death in plant-microbe interactions. Annu. Rev. Phytopathol. 51: 25.1-25.28.

Williams, B., Kabbage, M., Kim, H-J., Britt, R. and Dickman, M.B. 2011. Tipping the balance: Sclerotinia sclerotiorum secreted oxalic acid suppresses host defenses by manipulating the host redox environment. PLoS Pathogens 7:1-10.

Williams, B., Kabbage, M., Britt, R., and Dickman, M.B. 2010. AtBAG7, a unique endoplasmic reticulum-localized Bcl-2 associated athanogene is involved in stress responses in Arabidopsis. Proc. Natl.Acad. Sci. 107: 6088-6093.

Khanna, H.K., Paul, J.Y., Harding, R.M., Dickman, M.B., and Dale, J.L. 2007. Inhibition of Agrobacterium-Induced Cell Death by Antiapoptotic Gene expression Leads to Very High Transformation Efficiency in Banana. Mol. Plant-Microbe Inter.20: 1048-1054.

Doukhanina, E.V., Chen, S., van der Zalm, E. Godzik, A., Reed, J. and Dickman, M.B. 2006. Identification and functional characterization of the BAG protein family in Arabidopsis thaliana. Journal of Biological Chemistry 281:18793-18801.

Chen, C., and Dickman, M.B. 2005. Proline suppresses apoptosis in the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum trifolii. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102: 3459-3464. (Includes Commentary)

Jamir, Y., Guo, M., Oh, H-S., Petnicki-Ocvwieja, T., Chen S., Tang, X., Dickman, M.B., Collmer, A., and Alfano, J.R. 2004. Identification of Pseudomonas syringae type III effectors that suppress programmed cell death in eukaryotes. The Plant Journal 37:554-565

Abramovitch, R.B., Kim, Y-K., Chen, S., Dickman, M. B. and Martin, G.B. 2003. Pseudomonas type III effector AvrPtoB induces plant disease susceptibility by inhibition of programmed cell death. EMBO J. 22: 60-69.

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.