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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IPMB, Academia Sinica
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News!
Sep 25, 2024 Congratulations to Sin-Sin (許馨心) for the successful defense on her master thesis !
Sep 2, 2024 Welcome Dr. Mary Nia M. Santos and Rosalie N. Gomez for visiting IPMB for scientific exchange to carry out Taiwan-Philippines Joint Research Project.
Aug 30, 2024 Congratulations to Xuan Lai (賴軒) for being awarded the the Outstanding Presentation Award (2nd place) in Ph.D. student progress report of the Institute of Plant Biology, National Taiwan University.
Aug 30, 2024 Farewell to summer interns Shan-Yun (Isa), Chi (紀善云), Hao-Wen Hsu (徐顥文), and Aragorn Liao (廖岑熹) and very proud to see their growth and excellent achievement! Also congratulations to 顥文 for being awarded the Silver award and 岑熹 for receiving the Bronze award in the IPMB summer internship final presentation!
Aug 23, 2024 Congratulations to Xuan Lai (賴軒) for being awarded the Best Presentation Award (1st place) in 2024 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*.