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
Google Scholar
Research Gate
IPMB, Academia Sinica
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News!
Feb 14, 2024 New publication on Agrobacterial T6SS His-Me nuclease effectors! Congratulations to 1st author, former Ph.D. student Nia Santos, and co-authors Keith Pintor, Yee-Wai Cheung, Li-Kang Sung from the Lai lab contributing to this work. A great collaboration with Yu-Ling Shih and her research assistant Pei-Yu Hsieh on microscopy imaging.
Dec 25, 2023 Farewell to Si-Chong Wang, former MS student and research assistant. Very proud of Si-Chong’s scientific achievement and thanks Si-Chong for his contribution to the lab! Wish Si-Chong all the best and success in next stage of career and life!
2023 Sep 1 Farewell to summer interns Te-En Chen (陳得恩), Hao-Wen Hsu (徐顥文), and Xing-Tai Zheng (曾杏泰) and very happy and proud of their excellent achievement! Also congratulations to Te-En for receiving the Bronze Award in IPMB summer internship final presentation!
2023 Aug 31 Congratulations to Xuan Lai (賴軒) for becoming Ph.D. candidate and being awarded the Outstanding Presentation Award (2nd place) in Ph.D. student progress report of the Institute of Plant Biology, National Taiwan University.
2023 Aug 25 Congratulations to Li-Kang Sung (宋立綱) for being awarded the Best Presentation Award (優等) in 2023 Annual Bacteriology Conference (細菌學研討會).
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New Publications!
Article
Agrobacteria deploy two classes of His-Me finger superfamily nuclease effectors exerting different antibacterial capacities against specific bacterial competitors.
Santos MN, Pintor KL, Hsieh PY, Cheung YW, Sung LK, Shih YL., & Lai EM*.
Protocol
Protein–Protein Interactions: Co-immunoprecipitation.
Lin JS, Ali J, Lai EM*.
Review
Virulence and ecology of Agrobacteria in the context of evolutionary genomics.
Weisberg AJ, Wu Y, Chang JH, Lai EM, Kuo CH*.