Professor Sebastian Schornack
- Research Group Leader
- Royal Society University Research Fellow
- Research Professor
- Affiliate member of the Department of Plant Sciences
Location
- Sainsbury Laboratory, 47 Bateman Street, Cambridge, CB2 1LR
About
I am a Senior Group Leader at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge University (SLCU) where I lead a research lab aiming to uncover the molecular mechanisms that underpin how plants are colonised by filamentous pathogens and symbiotic fungi, and to use this knowledge to inform plant engineering approaches.
My team works across a diverse range of plant systems, from bryophytes to angiosperms, enabling us to take comparative and evolutionary approaches. Through this work, we have gained new insights into the processes that both support and restrict plant–microbe interactions, opening up opportunities for improved crop protection and crop development.
Education
I completed my undergraduate degree at the Martin-Luther University of Halle, Germany, and conducted a Diploma project on the cloning of the tomato disease resistance gene Bs4. I earned my PhD degree in 2006 in Plant Biology, working on the structure, specificity and regulation of the Bs4 disease resistance gene and was awarded the Martin Luther Award for Excellence.
A subsequent short postdoctoral study at the University Halle resulted the co-discovery of the TAL effector DNA binding code. I was then awarded a postdoctoral scholarship from the German Science Foundation and undertook research on Phytophthora infestans effector proteins with Sophien Kamoun at The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK.
In 2013 I was awarded a Gatsby Fellowship and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and started my own independent research on intracellular plant-microbe interactions. I was promoted to Principal Gatsby Fellow in 2019 and Research Professor in 2024.
I am also an affiliate member of the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge.
Research
Research interests
- Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF)
- Symbiosis
- Oomycetes
- Phytophthora
- Mycorrhiza
- Nicotiana
- Medicago
- Barley
- Haustoria
- Effectors
- TAL effectors
- Xanthomonas
My research revolves around microbe-induced host cell reprogramming by effector proteins that are shuttled into plant cells. Effectors are a hallmark for animal and plant pathogens’ success in conquering the host. Plant populations frequently maintain counter-defensive disease resistance proteins (R proteins) for intracellular recognition of effectors. Studying R protein mechanisms thus reveals plant strategies in coping with constant pathogen challenge.
During my masters and Ph.D. studies with Thomas Lahaye in Halle I characterised the tomato TIR-NB-LRR protein Bs4. Bs4 confers resistance towards the bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv vesicatoria (Schornack et al. (2004) Plant J,). Xanthomonads are the causal agents of economically important bacterial plant diseases in tomato, pepper, citrus and rice. Tomato Bs4-mediated resistance is achieved by cytoplasmic recognition of a set of Xanthomonas-translocated transcription activator-like (TAL) effector proteins [Schornack et al. (2005) Mol Plant Microbe Interact].
TAL effectors have a striking structure with central repeats and transcription activation domain and localise to host cell nuclei. They basically represent transcription factors that induce a set of host genes which in turn affect host physiology and development to support Xanthomonas infection. During a short postdoc following my Ph.D. in the same lab, I studied the TAL effector AvrHah1 [Schornack et al. (2008) New Phytol].
I was intrigued by how these TAL effectors find their specific target gene promoters. The similarity of AvrHah1 to existing effectors together with other data obtained in the labs of Prof. Ulla Bonas and Prof. Thomas Lahaye enabled my colleague Jens Boch and me to break a fundamental code of DNA-binding specificity [Boch and Schornack (2010) IS-MPMI Reporter and Boch, Scholze, Schornack et al. (2009) Science]. This discovery led to generation of customised TAL activators and nucleases with unrivalled DNA binding specificity that are now frequently being exploited in biomedicine as illustrated by a flurry of publications. I am trying to keep up with these in my blog: www.scoop.it/t/tal-effector-science.
My next stop was the group of Sophien Kamoun at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, where I studied the interactions of plants and oomycetes. I primarily use cell biology approaches to study Phytophthora infestans, the Irish potato famine pathogen in Nicotiana benthamiana [Chaparro-Garcia et al. (2011) PLoS One]. I contributed to understanding of trafficking and function of the phylogenetically ancient class of Crinkler effectors. It was surprising to find that despite their diversity they all target the host nucleus [Schornack et al. (2010) PNAS]. I then continued my interest in studying P. infestans effectors that contribute to the development and maintenance of dedicated accommodation structures formed between microorganism and plant cell, called haustoria [Bozkurt, Schornack et al. (2011) PNAS].