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Jur

Biological Chemistry

Dr Jurriaan Ton

  • BBSRC-ICPF fellow and Principal Investigator (band 5)
  • Chemical Ecology Group
  • jurriaan.ton@bbsrc.ac.uk
  • 01582 763133 extension 2893


  • Personal Publication List


    • Career summary

    1991-1996 M.Sc. in Biology, Utrecht University. Specialisation: Paleobiology, Phytopathology and Plant Physiology.
    1996-2001 Ph.D. in Biology (“cum laude”). Utrecht University, Department of Phytopoathology.Title: Rhizobacteria-mediated induced systemic resistance in Arabidopsis.
    Supervisors: Prof. L.C. Van Loon and Dr. C.M.J. Pieterse
    2001 Post-doc position. Utrecht University, Department of Phytopathology.
    Title project: Fine-mapping of the ISR1 locus in Arabidopsis.
    Supervisor: Corné Pieterse.
    2001-2003 Post-doc position. University of Neuchâtel, Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.Title project: Priming during induced resistance in Arabidopsis.
    Supervisor: Brigitte Mauch-Mani.
    2004 Post-doc position. University of Neuchâtel, Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Entomology.
    Title project: Volatile-induced priming for defense against Spodoptera littoralis in maize.
    Supervisor: Ted Turlings.
    2004-2007  NWO-VENI fellowship for Innovative Science. Utrecht University, Faculty of Biology, Section Phytopathoglogy.
    Title project: The molecular mechanisms of the alarmed state.
    2008-present  BBSRC-institute career path fellowship (ICPF). Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, UK. Title project: “exploring adaptive immunity in plants“.

     

    Current research

    In their struggle for life, plants strongly rely on inducible defence mechanisms. Plants activate these defences when they are under attack by harmful pathogens or insects. Induced defence involves a wide range of different chemical and physical defence barriers, ranging from toxic metabolites that target the attacker’s physiology, to cell wall appositions that prevent invasions by pathogenic fungi. Despite this diversity in mechanisms, the induced defence is not always sufficient to protect the plant against damage by pathogens and insects. This is why plants have evolved an additional regulatory system that allows them to fine-tune their inducible defence system. Upon perception of specific environmental cues, plants can develop an enhanced defensive capacity that enables a faster and stronger induced defence response after pathogen or insect attack. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as “sensitization” or “priming” and provides protection against a wide range of pathogens and insects1. The first systematic studies into the priming phenomenon were carried out by Conrath and colleagues in the 1990s, who discovered that exogenous application of salicylic acid (SA) can prime parsley cells for enhanced cellular defences upon secondary treatment a pathogen elicitor. Since then, the phenomenon has been reported during a range of biologically and chemically induced resistance phenomena1 In Arabidopsis, priming yields broad-spectrum induced resistance with minimal reductions in plant growth and seed set2. This suggests an important ecological function of priming, as it allows plants to adjust their innate immune system to the hostile conditions in the environment. Hence, priming provides a cost-efficient solution to the trade-off dilemma between costs of inducible defences, on the one hand, and benefits of disease protection, on the other hand. Because priming strengthens the responses that are already part of the plant’s own defensive metabolism, it offers a promising concept to improve crop protection against diseases and pests in sustainable agriculture. My research group aims to explore the regulatory mechanisms behind different priming phenomena in plants. More

    c1

    Figure 1: Plants in relatively stress-free environments invest most of their resources in growth and reproduction (left). If plants live in hostile environments and are attacked by harmfulmicro-organisms or insects, they activate inducible defence mechanisms (right). Expression of this “induced defense” is often costly due to allocation of limited resources to defensive compounds, or toxicity of the defense to the plant’s own metabolism. However, plants are also capable of sensing environemtal cues that indicate upcoming stress. These signals “sensitize” or “prime” the plant’s innate immune system (middle), which results in a faster and/or stronger defence reaction when the plant is attacked at a later stage. Although the level of protection by priming tends to be slightly less than that of induced defence, priming is effective against a broad range of (a)biotic stress and comes with considerably less costs than induced defence. Cartoon: Marieke van Hulten