Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

Dr. Iyer-Pascuzzi’s research investigates the mechanisms that plant roots use to perceive and respond to the environment. There are two primary areas of research in the lab. The first is focused on understanding the molecular basis of plant resistance to bacterial wilt, caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. Ralstonia is a devastating soil-borne pathogen that first infects root systems. Despite the devastation it causes, little is known regarding the networks that underlie resistance or susceptibility, and root responses to R. solanacearum are unclear. Using both tomato and Arabidopsis, we focus on understanding resistance responses at three levels of root development: root cell types, root developmental stages, and root architecture. Current questions include, what are the spatio-temporal dynamics of pathogen invasion in resistant and susceptible genotypes? How are different root cell types and developmental stages affected by bacterial wilt? What are the gene regulatory networks involved in the response to bacterial wilt within each cell type? We use a combination of cell biology, genetics, and genomics approaches to address these questions. The major goal of this research is to identify novel forms of resistance to bacterial wilt. Our second area of research is centered around the role of Nodule Inception-Like Proteins (NLPs) in root development. NLP proteins are a unique family of transcription factors found in a wide diversity of plant species. We are studying the molecular mechanisms through which these proteins mediate root development and stress responses in Arabidopsis.

Selected Publications:

Karve R, Suarez Roman F, and Iyer-Pascuzzi AS. 2016. The transcription factor NIN-LIKE PROTEIN 7 (NLP7) controls border-like cell release in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology, in press

French E, Kim BS, and Iyer-Pascuzzi AS. 2016. Mechanisms of quantitative disease resistance in plants. Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, in press.

Kim BS, French E, Caldwell D, Harrington EJ, and Iyer-Pascuzzi AS. 2016. Bacterial wilt disease: host resistance and pathogen virulence mechanisms. Physiol Mol Plant Path, 95: 37-43.

Karve R and Iyer-Pascuzzi AS. 2015. Digging deeper: high-resolution genome-scale data yields new insights in root development. Curr Opin in Plant Biol, 24: 24 – 30.

Sozzani R and Iyer-Pascuzzi AS. 2014. Post-embryonic growth and development of the Arabidopsis root. Curr Opin in Plant Biol, 17: 7 – 12.

Topp CN, Iyer-Pascuzzi AS, Anderson JT, Lee CR, Zurek PR, Symonova O, Zheng Y, Bucksch A, Mileyko Y, Galkovskyi T, Moore BT, Harer J, Edelsbrunner H, Mitchell-Olds T, Weitz JS, and Benfey PN. 2013. 3-dimensional phenotyping of growing root systems combined with QTL mapping identifies core regions of the rice genome controlling root architecture. Proc Natl Acad Sci, USA: 110 (18): E1695-704.

Fang S, Clark RT, Zheng Y, Iyer-Pascuzzi AS, Weitz JS, Kochian LV, Edelsbrunner H, Liao H, and Benfey PN. 2013. Genotypic recognition and spatial responses by rice roots. Proc Natl Acad Sci, USA 110: 2670

Iyer-Pascuzzi AS*, Zurek P, and Benfey PN. 2012. High-throughput, non-invasive imaging of root systems. Methods in Mol Biol 959: 177 (*co-first author)

Galkovskyi T, Mileyko Y, Bucksh A, Moore B, Symonova O, Price CA, Topp CN, Iyer-Pascuzzi AS, Zurek PR, Fang S, Harer J, Benfey PN, and Weitz JS. 2012. GiA Roots: Software for the High Throughput Analysis of Plant Root System Architecture. BMC Plant Biology 12:116

Cederholm HM, Iyer-Pascuzzi AS, and Benfey PN. 2012. Patterning the primary root in Arabidopsis. Wires Developmental Biology 1: 675-691