My research has utilized species-wide genome information (1001 Genomes Consortium, 2016) to investigate hybrid performances in various adaptive traits in plants, including autoimmunity and growth (Chae et al., 2014; Seymour et al., 2016). This effort established systems genetics approaches to investigate complexity in the immune system network (Tran et al., 2017) and the trade-off between growth and defence (Karasov et al., 2016). In the Chae lab, we investigate the variability of immune responses, its contribution to adaptation and the fitness consequences of this variability on growth and development. Knowledge gained from my research will then be translated to develop germplasm with optimized combinations of stress response and agronomic performances.

1) Tran DTN, Chung EH, Habring-Müller A, Demar M, Schwab R, Dangl JL, Weigel D*, Chae E* (2017) Activation of a plant NLR complex through heteromeric association with an autoimmune risk variant of another NLR. Current Biology 27(8):1148-1160 (PMID: 28416116).
* co-corresponding authors
2) Karasov T, Chae E, Herman J, Bergelson J (2017) Mechanisms to mitigate the trade-off between growth and defense. Plant Cell 29(4):666-680 (PMID: 28320784).
3) Seymour DK*, Chae E*, Grimm DG*, Martín Pizarro C, Habring-Müller A, Vasseur F, Rakitsch B, Borgwardt K, Koenig D, Weigel D (2016) Genetic architecture of nonadditive inheritance in Arabidopsis thaliana hybrids. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 113(46):E7317-E7326 (PMID: 27803326).* co-first authors
4) 1001 Genomes Consortium (2016) 1135 genomes reveal the global pattern of polymorphism in Arabidopsis thaliana. Cell 166(2):481-91 (PMID: 27293186).
5) Chae E, Bomblies K, Kim ST, Karelina D, Zaidem M, Ossowski S, Martín Pizarro C, Laitinen RA, Rowan BA, Tenenboim H, Lechner S, Demar M, Habring-Müller A, Lanz C, Rätsch G, Weigel D (2014) Species-wide genetic incompatibility analysis identifies immune genes as hot spots of deleterious epistasis. Cell 159(6):1341-51 (PMID: 25467443).