Convergent evolution of the UbiA prenyltransferase family underlies the independent acquisition of furanocoumarins in plants.

Furanocoumarins (FCs) are plant-specialized metabolites with potent allelochemical properties. The distribution of FCs is scattered with a chemotaxonomical tendency towards four distant families with highly similar FC pathways. The mechanism by which this pathway emerged and spread in plants has not been elucidated.

Sucrose modifies growth and physiology in axenically grown Myriophyllum spicatum with potential effects on the response to pollutants.

Sucrose as a carbon source in axenic tests affects plant growth and physiology. The high sucrose concentration in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guideline 238 for the submerged growing aquatic plant Myriophyllum spicatum might modify pollutant effects, thus impairing environmental risk assessment. In a factorial design experiment with axenic M.

Does nitrate co-pollution affect biological responses of an aquatic plant to two common herbicides?

Aquatic systems in agricultural landscapes are subjected to multiple stressors, among them pesticide and nitrate run-off, but effects of both together have rarely been studied. We investigated possible stress-specific and interaction effects using the new OECD test organism, Myriophyllum spicatum, a widespread aquatic plant. In a fully factorial design, we used two widely applied herbicides, isoproturon and mesosulfuron-methyl, in concentration-response curves at two nitrate levels (219.

Low environmentally relevant levels of bioactive xenobiotics and associated degradation products cause cryptic perturbations of metabolism and molecular stress responses in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Anthropic changes and chemical pollution confront wild plant communities with xenobiotic combinations of bioactive molecules, degradation products, and adjuvants that constitute chemical challenges potentially affecting plant growth and fitness. Such complex challenges involving residual contamination and mixtures of pollutants are difficult to assess. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana was confronted by combinations consisting of the herbicide glyphosate, the fungicide tebuconazole, the glyphosate degradation product aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), and the atrazine degradation product hydroxyatrazine, which had been detected and quantified in soils of field margins in an agriculturally intensive region.