Nick obtained his Master degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Cologne in 2020. During his studies he mainly focused on plant-microbe interaction, plant proteases and microbe-triggered cell death. In addition to his research at the university, Nick worked as an intern at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research and at KAUST in Saudi Arabia. The main objective of his PhD is to understand the role of cell death in plant-microbe interactions. If you want to contact Nick, you can follow him under the handle @armadill0guy on X.

Cell death regulation and function in plant-fungal symbiosis

The beneficial root endophyte Serendipita indica promotes growth, local and systemic resistance towards pathogens and stress tolerance in a variety of host plant species. After an initial biotrophic colonization of the root epidermis and cortex cells, S. indica triggers host cell death. During the cell death-associated phase, expression of the genes encoding for two functionally characterized effector proteins SiNucA and SiE5NT peaks. SiNucA is a nuclease, capable of hydrolyzing DNA and RNA, while SiE5NT functions as a 5’-endonucleotidase, efficiently cleaving AMP to Ado. Furthermore, SiNucA and SiE5NT can synergistically digest DNA to dAdo, which has been described as a potent cell death inducer in animal systems (Nizam et al. 2019). During his PhD thesis, Nick aims to analyze the mechanisms of S. indica-triggered cell death, investigating the involvement of dAdo production and its general role in cell death-associated plant-microbe interaction. After establishing reliable cell death readouts (Dunken et al. 2022) and identifying the nucleoside transporter ENT3 as a bottleneck in S. indica-induced cell death (Dunken et al. 2023), he is currently working on the role of TIR-NLR proteins in the interaction of plants and beneficial root endophytes.