Mona Mehdy

Mona Mehdy

	Associate Professor Ph.D. University of California at San Diego, 1984 mmehdy@mail.utexas.edu Office PAI 2.32; PAI 2.38 (512) 471-5806
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In response to pathogens and herbivores, plants employ up-regulation and down-regulation of diverse genes to achieve resistance. Research in my lab centers on two areas: 1) molecular mechanisms of down-regulation of gene expression during the plant defense response and its biological significance; 2) understanding the functions of specific defense-down-regulated genes during normal growth and development. Using both Arabidopsis and a crop plant, French bean, we have shown that repression of gene expression can occur at the transciptional level or by rapid degradation of mRNAs, depending on the gene. We are especially focused on analyzing the signaling pathway linking pathogen recognition and mRNA degradation. The roles of the proteins during normal development are being explored by over- and under-expression of the protein in transgenic plants, microarrays, spatial expression and biochemical studies. For two cell wall localized proteins, our findings suggest interesting roles in the vascular system and rapidly dividing and elongating cells, respectively.

Selected Publications Liu, C. and Mehdy, M.C. (2007) A non-classical arabinogalactan-protein gene highly expressed in vascular tissues, AGP31, is transcriptionally repressed by methyl jasmonic acid in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology 145, 863-874. Lambais, M.R. and Mehdy, M.C. (1998) Spatial distribution of chitinases and ?-1,3-glucanase transcripts in bean arbuscular mycorrhizal roots under low and high soil phosphate conditions. New Phytologist 140, 33-42. Mehdy, M.C., Sharma, Y.K., Sathasivan, K. and Bays, N.W. (1996) The role of activated oxygen species in plant disease resistance. Physiologum Plantarum 98, 365-374. Zhang, S. and Mehdy, M.C. (1994) Binding of a 50-kD protein to a U-rich sequence in a mRNA encoding a proline-rich protein that is destabilized by fungal elicitor. Plant Cell 6, 135-145.

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