Sheng-Yang He, Benjamin E. Powell Distinguished Professor  

Sheng-Yang He

Interested in the fascinating world of plants, microbes or inter-organismal communication and co-evolution? Please contact Prof. Sheng-Yang He (shengyang.he@duke.edu; hes@msu.edu).

Millions of years of co-evolution between plants and microbes have resulted in an intricate web of attack, counter-attack, decoy, and hijacking mechanisms in biology. Moreover, co-evolution between plants and microbes is greatly impacted by ongoing climate change. In our lab, we probe “host-microbe-climate” interactions to answer the following fundamental questions: (1) How do microbial pathogens infect a susceptible host? (2) How do plants select beneficial microbiomes to ensure health? (3) How do climate conditions impact disease and immunity?      

We use contemporary methods to address these questions, including those commonly used in molecular genetics, genomics, biochemistry, cell biology, bioinformatics, microbiology, plant biology, co-evolution and infectious disease biology.    

Education:
Ph.D., Cornell University, 1991

Office Phone: (919) 613-8155
Email Address: shengyang.he@duke.edu

Additional Web Page: http://www.thehelab.org

Office Hours:

9 am - 5 pm daily

Recent Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

  1. Wang, S; Zhu, L; Tian, M; Wu, W; Hu, X; Li, X; Wang, J; Zhu, Y; Xu, J; Mou, B; Yang, J; Cui, F; Li, D; Cheng, J; Liu, Z; Wang, M-A; Qi, L; Jin, W; Luo, Z-Q; Zhou, P; Lee, Y-H; Staskawicz, B; He, SY; Sun, W, A bacterial nutrition strategy for plant disease control., Science, vol. 390 no. 6779 (December, 2025), pp. 1299-1304 [doi]  [abs].
  2. Zhang, X-Y; Li, S; Opachaloemphan, C; Zhang, C-X; He, SY; Jiang, Y, Augmenting rice <i>ANNEXIN</i> expression to counter planthopper <i>Nl</i>Annexin-like5 as an antivirulence strategy against a major crop pest., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 122 no. 41 (October, 2025), pp. e2505698122 [doi]  [abs].
  3. Li, P; Kelley, B; Li, Z; Proctor, B; Corrion, A; Xie, X; Sheick, R; Lu, Y-J; Nomoto, M; Wei, C-I; Tada, Y; He, S-Y; Xiao, S; Day, B, Actin Depolymerization Factor (ADF) Moonlighting: Nuclear Immune Regulation by Interacting with WRKY Transcription Factors and Shaping the Transcriptome., bioRxiv (August, 2025) [doi]  [abs].
  4. Shields, A; Yao, L; Rossi, CAM; Collado Cordon, P; Kim, JH; AlTemen, WMA; Li, S; Marchetta, EJR; Shivnauth, V; Chen, T; He, SY; Xin, X-F; Castroverde, CDM, Warm temperature suppresses plant systemic acquired resistance by intercepting N-hydroxypipecolic acid biosynthesis., The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology, vol. 123 no. 3 (August, 2025), pp. e70374 [doi]  [abs].
  5. Jia, H; Hewitt, N; Jordá, L; Abramyan, TM; Tolliver, J; Jones, JL; Nomura, K; Yang, J; He, S-Y; Tropsha, A; Molina, A; Dohlman, HG; Jones, AM, Phosphorylation-activated G protein signaling stabilizes TCP14 and JAZ3 to repress JA signaling and enhance plant immunity., Molecular plant, vol. 18 no. 7 (July, 2025), pp. 1171-1192 [doi]  [abs].