Study of the plant microbiome can contribute to sustainable agricultural systems through improvements to plant health and nutrition. One goal has been to select and design microbiome communities for specific functions. In a recent article, Morella et al. have used an experimental evolution approach to understand the robustness of the plant microbiome after colonization of […]
Gall formation by plants is a commonly-seen phenomenon that occurs in response to foreign entities (here called “gall-inducers”) such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, etc. In this review Harris and Pitzschke set out criteria for what is and is not a gall; by definition the gall is a developmental response of the plant that benefits […]
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. As agents that weaken or destroy pathogens, they have shown therapeutic promise in human and plant disease treatment. Wang et al. studied the effect on pathogenic Ralstonia solanacearum of different phages individually and in combinations in the rhizosphere of host tomato plant. They conducted experiments in the greenhouse and […]
RNA G quadruplex (RG4) structures that include two or more layers of G-quartets can form in guanine-rich RNA sequences. These structures are known exist in vitro and are proposed to form in vivo as well. However, there is no direct evidence from plants showing the presence of these structures in vivo. Here, Yang et al. […]
Root system architecture (RSA) describes the spatial arrangement of root components within the soil. RSA is useful to understand the exploration of the plant to get nutrients and water through the soil space. In a new review, Correa et al. discuss RSA plasticity in response to soil compaction, which is the process where the distance […]
How exactly does the plant defense system target pathogens? Nobori et al. have analyzed interactions inside the plant between the foliar bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae and Arabidopsis thaliana at transcriptomic and proteomic levels by using RNAseq and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) during early and later stages of infection. The authors found that the pathogenesis-related […]
During the course of time, we have realized the importance of biodiversity for the maintenance of the ecosystem. However, the world has already been fragmented in small parts which resulted in a huge loss of habitat and threatening to biodiversity. Habitat connectivity, which means the degree to which separated patches of habitat are connected, is […]
The emerging disease wheat blast is devastating and has the capacity to cause 100% yield loss. Wheat blast is caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT). This pathotype is distinct from most of the pathotypes that causes disease in other plants such as M. oryzae Oryza (MoO) in rice. Very little is known […]
Garlic (Allium sativum L.) produces allicin (diallylthiosulfinate), which is an antibiotic defense substance. It can oxidize thiols in celular targets such as cysteines and glutathione. Because allicin has multiple sites and mechanisms of action, it is difficult for an organism to become resistant. Borlinghaus et al. isolated a highly allicin resistant Pseudomonas fluorescens strain (PfAR-1) […]