Prof. Dr. Regine Kahmann
Molecular phytopathology
Curriculum Vitae
Studies in Microbiology, Universität Göttingen, 1967
Diplom (Biology), Universität Göttingen, 1972
Dr. rer. nat (Biology), Freie Universität Berlin, 1974
Postdoc and Junior Staff Member, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1980
Research Associate, Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, 1982
Leader of an independent Research Group, Otto-Warburg Laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, 1986
Leader of an independent Research Group at the Institute for Genebiological Research in Berlin, 1992
Professor of Genetics, Institute for Genetics and Microbiology at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München, since 1992
Director and Head of the Department of Organismic Interactions at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, since 2000
Professor of Genetics, Philipps-Universität Marburg, since 4/2001
Molecular Phytopathology
Our group aims to understand how fungi manage to infect plants. We focus on a group of fungi that are pathogens of grasses and cereal crop plants and cause so-called smut diseases. Our prime model is the biotrophic fungus Ustilago maydis that induces tumors in infected corn plants. To establish itself in the plant tissue U. maydis secretes a battery of mostly completely novel effector proteins. These effectors are used to suppress plant immune responses and to reprogram the metabolism of the host to benefit fungal needs. Our goal is to determine where these effectors end up after being secreted into the plant-fungus interface, what their molecular function is, how they have evolved in the arms-race between pathogen and host and how their expression is regulated.
Recent publications
Han, X., Altegoer, F., Steinchen, W., Schuhmacher, J., Glatter, T., Giammarinaro, P., Djamei, A., Rensing, S., Reissmann, S., Kahmann, R. and Bange, G. (2018)
A kiwellin disarms metabolic activity of a secreted fungal virulence factor
Nature (accepted)
Tanaka, S., Rössel, N., Fukada, F., Schweizer, G., Thines, M. and Kahmann, R. (2018)
Neofunctionalization of a secreted effector in a fungal pathogen
Nature Microbiology (accepted)
Krombach, S., Reissmann, S., Kreibich, S., Bochen, F. and Kahmann, R. (2018)
Virulence function of the Ustilago maydis sterol carrier protein 2
New Phytologist 220:553-566. doi:10.1111/nph.15268
Schuster, M., Trippel, C., Happel, P., Lanver, D., Reißmann, S. and Kahmann, R. (2018)
Single and Multiplexed Gene Editing in Ustilago maydis Using CRISPR-Cas9.
Bio-protocol. 8(14): e2928. Doi:10.21769/BioProtoc.2928
Ma, L.-S., Wang, L., Trippel, C., Mendoza-Mendoza, A., Ullmann, S., Moretti, M., Carsten, A., Kahnt, J., Reissmann, S., Zechmann, B., Bange, G. and Kahmann, R. (2018)
The Ustilago maydis repetitive effector Rsp3 blocks the antifungal activity of mannosebinding maize proteins
Nature Communications 9:1711. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04149-0
Schweizer, G., Münch, K., Mannhaupt, G., Schirawski, J., Kahmann, R. and Dutheil, J.Y. (2018)
Positively selected effector genes and their contribution to virulence in the smut fungus Sporisorium reilianum.
Genome Biol Evol. 10(2):629-645. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evy023.
Lanver, D., Müller, A., Happel, P., Schweizer, G., Haas, F.B., Franitza, M., Pellegrin, C., Reissmann, S., Altmüller, J., Rensing, S.A. and Kahmann, R. (2018)
The biotrophic development of Ustilago maydis studied by RNAseq analysis.
Plant Cell. 30(2):300-323. doi: 10.1105/tpc.17.00764. Epub 2018 Jan 25.
Schuster, M., Schweizer, G. and Kahmann, R. (2018)
Comparative analyses of secreted proteins in plant pathogenic smut fungi and related basidiomycetes.
Fungal Genet. Biol. 112:21-30. doi: 10.1016/j.fgb.2016.12.003. Epub 2017 Jan6.
Ma, L.-S., Pellegrin, C. and Kahmann, R. (2018)
Repeat-containing effectors of filamentous pathogens and symbionts.
Curr Opin Microbiol 13:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2018.01.007
Lo Presti, L. and Kahmann, R. (2017).
How filamentous plant pathogen effectors are translocated to host cells.
Current Opinion in Plant Biology 38:19-24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2017.04.005
Lanver, D., Tollot, M., Schweizer, G., Lo Presti, L., Reissmann, S., Ma, L.-S., Schuster, M., Tanaka, S., Liang, L., Ludwig, N. and Kahmann, R. (2017)
Ustilago maydis effectors and their impact on virulence.
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15:409-421. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro.2017.33
Moretti, M., Wang, L., Grognet, P., Lanver, D., Link, H. and Kahmann, R. (2017)
Three regulators of G protein signaling differentially affect mating, morphology and virulence in the smut fungus Ustilago maydis.
Mol. Microbiol. 105(6):901-921. doi: 10.1111/mmi.13745. Epub 2017 Jul 21.