It is increasingly clear that microbes are essential components for almost all life forms on earth. Thus, understanding how microbes interact with other organisms within microbial community or inside the associated hosts are crucial for improvement of human and plant health. The major research interests in my laboratory are to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying how bacterial pathogens deploy protein secretion systems for survival at its ecological niche and successful infection inside the plant host. My laboratory investigates the mechanistic and biological insights of the two major protein secretion nanomachines, type IV and type VI secretion systems (T4SS and T6SS), in Agrobacterium tumefaciens, the causal agent of crown gall disease and powerful gene transfer tool. By investigating the mechanistic and biological functions of T4SS and T6SS, we hope to understand the underlying mechanisms how A. tumefaciens survive and overcomes several lines of host defense response for successful infection. The knowledge may provide new insights to improve Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation and translational applications in biomedicine and/or agriculture.
More Information About Principal Investigator
Erh-Min Lai
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Research Gate
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IPMB, Academia Sinica
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News!
Nov 14, 2025 Congratulations to Mao-Sen Liu (劉茂森) and Teng-Kuei Huang (黃登魁) and all authors on the work "Floral Stage Optimization and Immune Evasion Enhance Agrobacterium-Mediated Genome Editing in Arabidopsis” accepted for publications in New Phytologist!
Nov 9, 2025 Congratulations to Yu Wu (吳宇) on receiving the best 3-min talk competition (1st place) in the Annual Meeting of Taiwan Society of Plant Biologist (TSPB).
Oct 28, 2025 Congratulations to Hao-Wen Hsu (徐灝文) on being awarded "National Farmers’ Association Sustainable Agriculture Talent Cultivation Scholarship” (114年度中華民國農會永續農業人才培育獎學金)
Oct 22, 2025 Congratulations to Teng-Kuei Huang (黃登魁) on being selected for a short talk in Japan-Taiwan Plant Biology 2026.
Oct 1, 2025 Congratulations to Li-Kang Sung (宋立綱) on being awarded IPMB travel award for attending international conferences.
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New Publications!
Preprint
Co-option of a degenerated polysaccharide transporter for type VI protein secretion across diverse α-Proteobacteria
Sung LK, Lin JS, Wang YC, Wu CF, Hsu HW, Chang J, Kuo CH, Lai EM*.
Article
Comparative transcriptomics reveals context- and strain-specific regulatory programmes of Agrobacterium during plant colonization
Wu Y, Chang HY, Wu CH, Lai EM, Kuo CH*.
Preview
Cooperation and antagonism in Agrobacterium-mediated transformation
Huang TK and Lai EM*.