Bioinoculant-induced plant resistance is modulated by interactions with resident soil microbes.

Background: Entomopathogenic fungi are increasingly used as bio-inoculants to enhance crop growth and resistance. When applied to rhizosphere soil, they interact with resident soil microbes, which can affect their ability to colonize and induce resistance in plants as well as modify the structure of the resident soil microbiome, either directly through interactions in the rhizosphere or indirectly, mediated by the plant. The extent to which such direct versus indirect interactions between bio-inoculants and soil microbes impact microbe-induced resistance in crops remains unclear.

Practical algebraic calculus and Nullstellensatz with the checkers Pacheck and Pastèque and Nuss-Checker.

Unlabelled: Automated reasoning techniques based on computer algebra have seen renewed interest in recent years and are for example heavily used in formal verification of arithmetic circuits. However, the verification process might contain errors. Generating and checking proof certificates is important to increase the trust in automated reasoning tools.

The imprint of microbe-induced plant resistance in plant-associated insects.

Beneficial microbes induce resistance in plants (MIR), imposing both lethal and sublethal effects on herbivorous insects. We argue that herbivores surviving MIR carry metabolic and immunological imprints of MIR with cascading effects across food webs. We propose that incorporating such cascading effects will strongly enhance the current MIR research framework.

In vivo effects of the alpha-synuclein misfolding inhibitor minzasolmin supports clinical development in Parkinson's disease.

Direct targeting of alpha-synuclein (ASYN) has emerged as a disease-modifying strategy for Parkinson's disease and other synucleinopathies which is being approached using both small molecule compounds and ASYN-targeted biologics. Minzasolmin (UCB0599) is an orally bioavailable and brain-penetrant small molecule ASYN misfolding inhibitor in clinical development as a disease-modifying therapeutic for Parkinson's disease. Herein the results of preclinical evaluations of minzasolmin that formed the basis for subsequent clinical development are described.

Effects of tomato inoculation with the entomopathogenic fungus on spider mite resistance and the rhizosphere microbial community.

Entomopathogenic fungi have been well exploited as biocontrol agents that can kill insects through direct contact. However, recent research has shown that they can also play an important role as plant endophytes, stimulating plant growth, and indirectly suppressing pest populations. In this study, we examined the indirect, plant-mediated, effects of a strain of entomopathogenic fungus, on plant growth and population growth of two-spotted spider mites () in tomato, using different inoculation methods (seed treatment, soil drenching and a combination of both).

Rapid evolutionary trade-offs between resistance to herbivory and tolerance to abiotic stress in an invasive plant.

Release from enemies can lead to rapid evolution in invasive plants, including reduced metabolic investment in defence. Conversely, reassociation with enemies leads to renewed evolution of defence, but the potential costs of this evolution are poorly documented. We report increased resistance of the invader Ambrosia artemisiifolia after reassociation with a coevolved specialist herbivore, and that this increase corresponds with reduced abiotic stress tolerance.

Environmental refuges from disease in host-parasite interactions under global change.

The physiological performance of organisms depends on their environmental context, resulting in performance-response curves along environmental gradients. Parasite performance-response curves are generally expected to be broader than those of their hosts due to shorter generation times and hence faster adaptation. However, certain environmental conditions may limit parasite performance more than that of the host, thereby providing an environmental refuge from disease.

Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on plant growth and herbivore infestation depend on availability of soil water and nutrients.

Introduction: Fitness of plants is affected by their symbiotic interactions with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and such effects are highly dependent on the environmental context.

Methods: In the current study, we inoculated the nursery shrub species with AMF species under contrasting levels of soil water and nutrients (diammonium phosphate fertilization), to assess their effects on plant growth, physiology and natural infestation by herbivores.

Results: Overall, plant biomass was synergistically enhanced by increasing soil water and soil nutrient levels.

Complex plant quality-microbiota-population interactions modulate the response of a specialist herbivore to the defence of its host plant.

Many specialist herbivores have evolved strategies to cope with plant defences, with gut microbiota potentially participating to such adaptations.In this study, we assessed whether the history of plant use (population origin) and microbiota may interact with plant defence adaptation.We tested whether microbiota enhance the performance of larvae on their host plant, and increase their ability to cope the defensive compounds, iridoid glycosides (IGs).

Tools and algorithms for the construction and analysis of systems: a special issue for TACAS 2020.

This special issue of Software Tools for Technology Transfer comprises extended versions of selected papers from the 26th edition of the International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS 2020). The focus of this conference series is tools and algorithms for the rigorous analysis of software and hardware systems, and the papers in this special cover the spectrum of current work in this field.

Phase 1/1b Studies of UCB0599, an Oral Inhibitor of α-Synuclein Misfolding, Including a Randomized Study in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) and its progression are thought to be caused and driven by misfolding of α-synuclein (ASYN). UCB0599 is an oral, small-molecule inhibitor of ASYN misfolding, aimed at slowing disease progression.

Objective: The aim was to investigate safety/tolerability and pharmacokinetics (PK) of single and multiple doses of UCB0599.

Effects of Light Quality on Colonization of Tomato Roots by AMF and Implications for Growth and Defense.

Beneficial soil microbes can enhance plant growth and defense, but the extent to which this occurs depends on the availability of resources, such as water and nutrients. However, relatively little is known about the role of light quality, which is altered during shading, resulting a low red: far-red ratio (R:FR) of light. We examined how low R:FR light influences arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF)-mediated changes in plant growth and defense using (tomato) and the insect herbivore .

Mining definitions in Kissat with Kittens.

Bounded variable elimination is one of the most important preprocessing techniques in SAT solving. It benefits from discovering functional dependencies in the form of definitions encoded in the CNF. While the common approach pioneered in SatELite relies on syntactic pattern matching, our new approach uses cores produced by an embedded SAT solver, Kitten.

Interactive Effects of Mycorrhizae, Soil Phosphorus, and Light on Growth and Induction and Priming of Defense in .

Increasing demands to reduce fertilizer and pesticide input in agriculture has triggered interest in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) that can enhance plant growth and confer mycorrhiza-induced resistance (MIR). MIR can be based on a variety of mechanisms, including induction of defense compounds, and sensitization of the plant's immune system (priming) for enhanced defense against later arriving pests or pathogens signaled through jasmonic acid (JA). However, growth and resistance benefits of AMF highly depend on environmental conditions.

Incremental column-wise verification of arithmetic circuits using computer algebra.

Verifying arithmetic circuits and most prominently multiplier circuits is an important problem which in practice still requires substantial manual effort. The currently most effective approach uses polynomial reasoning over pseudo boolean polynomials. In this approach a word-level specification is reduced by a Gröbner basis which is implied by the gate-level representation of the circuit.

Pollination and fruit infestation under artificial light at night:light colour matters.

Rapid human population growth and associated urbanization lead to increased artificial illumination of the environment. By changing the natural light-dark cycle, artificial lighting can affect the functioning of natural ecosystems. Many plants rely on insects in order to reproduce but these insects are known to be disturbed by artificial light.

Ménage à Trois: Unraveling the Mechanisms Regulating Plant-Microbe-Arthropod Interactions.

Plant-microbe-arthropod (PMA) three-way interactions have important implications for plant health. However, our poor understanding of the underlying regulatory mechanisms hampers their biotechnological applications. To this end, we searched for potential common patterns in plant responses regarding taxonomic groups or lifestyles.

Strong Extension-Free Proof Systems.

We introduce proof systems for propositional logic that admit short proofs of hard formulas as well as the succinct expression of most techniques used by modern SAT solvers. Our proof systems allow the derivation of clauses that are not necessarily implied, but which are redundant in the sense that their addition preserves satisfiability. To guarantee that these added clauses are redundant, we consider various efficiently decidable redundancy criteria which we obtain by first characterizing clause redundancy in terms of a semantic implication relationship and then restricting this relationship so that it becomes decidable in polynomial time.

Growing Research Networks on Mycorrhizae for Mutual Benefits.

Research on mycorrhizal interactions has traditionally developed into separate disciplines addressing different organizational levels. This separation has led to an incomplete understanding of mycorrhizal functioning. Integration of mycorrhiza research at different scales is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying the context dependency of mycorrhizal associations, and to use mycorrhizae for solving environmental issues.

Species-specific plant-soil feedbacks alter herbivore-induced gene expression and defense chemistry in Plantago lanceolata.

Plants actively interact with antagonists and beneficial organisms occurring in the above- and belowground domains of terrestrial ecosystems. In the past decade, studies have focused on the role of plant-soil feedbacks (PSF) in a broad range of ecological processes. However, PSF and its legacy effects on plant defense traits, such as induction of defense-related genes and production of defensive secondary metabolites, have not received much attention.