Cathebras Team
Evolution of cellular processes in root endosymbiosis
Research
© Chloé Cathebras
Crop production worldwide relies extensively on nitrogen fertilizers synthesized via the energy-intensive Haber–Bosch process. To overcome nutrient limitations in natural environments, several plants have evolved the ability to form symbiotic relationships with nutrient-delivering fungi and bacteria, forming root endosymbioses. The nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbiosis (RNS) is a mutualistic symbiosis between plants and nitrogen-fixing bacteria which is confined to a single clade of flowering plants comprising four orders: the Fabales, Fagales, Cucurbitales and Rosales. In this symbiosis, bacteria are hosted intracellularly within a new organ – the root nodule – where they convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium by means of the enzyme nitrogenase. Over the course of evolution, RNS-forming plants have evolved distinct strategies to uptake bacteria into their cells as well as different structures to accommodate these bacteria during the nitrogen-fixing process. Our research aims to elucidate how these features have evolved. By focusing on transcription factors and cis-regulatory elements within cognate promoters, we investigate how distinct signaling pathways have been co-opted and integrated during the evolution of the RNS in legumes (Fabales).
Publications
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6781-7929
Cathebras C*, Gong X*, Andrade RE, Vondenhoff K, Keller J, Delaux P-M, Hayashi M, Griesmann M, Parniske M. (2026). A novel cis-element enabled bacterial uptake by plant cells. Nature Plants 12:140-151.
Alumni
Completed MSc. theses
- Jonas Hammerl (2020)
Internships
- Matthias Ostermeier (2017)
- Aurélien Zacchello (2018)
- Jonas Hammerl (2019)
- Rubén Pérez Valverde (2024)
- Helena Aden (2024)
- Antonia Bethaeuser (2024)
- Nathalie Degenhardt (2024)