Cris Argueso

Special Assistant Professor
Office: Anatomy/Zoology Building E411
Phone: 970-491-3475
Email: cris.argueso@colostate.edu

The focus of my research is to understand the molecular processes that underlie plant immunity. More specifically, I am interested in how plant hormones shape the immune responses in plants against pathogen attack. In the past few years I have been studying the role of the plant hormone cytokinin, and how it contributes to pattern triggered-immunity in plants using the model species Arabidopsis thaliana and the oomycete pathogen Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis. In this research I have uncovered a crosstalk between cytokinin and the defense hormone salicylic acid, and identified cytokinin signaling components that mediate this response. My future interests include undertanding this hormonal interplay in rice plants, and how it can modulate defense and other physiological aspects linked to these two plant hormones.

My other research focus is the identification and characterization of transcriptional networks in response to cytokinin, in the context of plant immunity. In my previous research I identified a large collection of cytokinin-regulated transcription factors in  Arabidopsis using a high throughput quantitative Real-Time PCR platform and Nanostrings technology. This has lead to the identification of transcriptional cascades that are initiated by cytokinin and contribute to plant immunity. My future interests in this project include further characterization of these transcription factors and their targets in Arabidopsis.

Selected Publications

Argueso, CT; Raynes, T and Kieber, JJ (2010) Cytokinin Signaling and Transcriptional Networks. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 13 (5) 533-539.

Argueso, CT; Ferreira, FJ and Kieber, JJ (2009) Environmental Perception Avenues: The interaction of cytokinin and environmental response pathways. Plant Cell and Environment, 32 (9) 1147-1160.

Hutchison CE, Li J, Argueso CT, Gonzalez M, Lee E, Lewis MW, Maxwell BB, Perdue TD, Schaller GE, Alonso JM, Ecker JR, Kieber JJ (2006). The Arabidopsis histidine phosphotransfer proteins are redundant positive regulators of cytokinin signaling.  Plant Cell, 18 (11):3073-87.

Muday GK, Brady SR, Argueso CT, Deruère J, Kieber JJ, DeLong A (2006). RCN1-regulated phosphatase activity and EIN2 modulate hypocotyl gravitropism by a mechanism that does not require ethylene signaling. Plant Physiology, 141(4):1617-29.

Argueso, CT, Hansen, MH and Kieber, JJ. Regulation of Ethylene Biosynthesis. Journal of Plant Growth Regulation, 26 (2) 92-105.