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. Nomura, K; Andreazza, F; Cheng, J; Dong, K; Zhou, P; He, SY, Author Correction: Bacterial pathogens deliver water- and solute-permeable channels to plant cells., Nature, vol. 625 no. 7995 (January, 2024), pp. E14 [doi] .
  2. Chen, J; Li, L; Kim, JH; Neuhäuser, B; Wang, M; Thelen, M; Hilleary, R; Chi, Y; Wei, L; Venkataramani, K; Exposito-Alonso, M; Liu, C; Keck, J; Barragan, AC; Schwab, R; Lutz, U; Pei, Z-M; He, S-Y; Ludewig, U; Weigel, D; Zhu, W, Small proteins modulate ion-channel-like ACD6 to regulate immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana., Molecular cell, vol. 83 no. 23 (December, 2023), pp. 4386-4397.e9 [doi]  [abs].
  3. Bhandari, DD; Ko, DK; Kim, S-J; Nomura, K; He, SY; Brandizzi, F, Defense against phytopathogens relies on efficient antimicrobial protein secretion mediated by the microtubule-binding protein TGNap1., Nature communications, vol. 14 no. 1 (October, 2023), pp. 6357 [doi]  [abs].
  4. Nomura, K; Andreazza, F; Cheng, J; Dong, K; Zhou, P; He, SY, Bacterial pathogens deliver water- and solute-permeable channels to plant cells., Nature, vol. 621 no. 7979 (September, 2023), pp. 586-591 [doi]  [abs].
  5. Paasch, BC; Sohrabi, R; Kremer, JM; Nomura, K; Cheng, YT; Martz, J; Kvitko, B; Tiedje, JM; He, SY, A critical role of a eubiotic microbiota in gating proper immunocompetence in Arabidopsis., Nature plants, vol. 9 no. 9 (September, 2023), pp. 1468-1480 [doi]  [abs].