The sound of lichens: ultrasonic acoustic emissions during desiccation question cavitation events in the hyphae.

Lichens are a mutualistic symbiosis between a fungus and one or more photosynthetic partners. They are photosynthetically active during desiccation down to relative water contents (RWCs) as low as 30% (on dry mass). Experimental evidence suggests that during desiccation, the photobionts have a higher hydration level than the surrounding fungal pseudo-tissues.

Arbuscular mycorrhizae reduce the response of important plant functional traits to drought and salinity. A meta-analysis study.

We aimed at exploring the plant functional traits whose responses to drought or salinity are altered by the presence of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM). We performed a meta-analysis across 114 articles spanning 110 plant species or cultivars. We quantified the size effect of AM symbiosis on the stress response of several functional traits, using linear mixed model analysis (LMM).

Polyamines and Legumes: Joint Stories of Stress, Nitrogen Fixation and Environment.

Polyamines (PAs) are natural aliphatic amines involved in many physiological processes in almost all living organisms, including responses to abiotic stresses and microbial interactions. On other hand, the family constitutes an economically and ecologically key botanical group for humans, being also regarded as the most important protein source for livestock. This review presents the profuse evidence that relates changes in PAs levels during responses to biotic and abiotic stresses in model and cultivable species within and examines the unreviewed information regarding their potential roles in the functioning of symbiotic interactions with nitrogen-fixing bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizae in this family.

Defining novel plant polyamine oxidase subfamilies through molecular modeling and sequence analysis.

Background: The polyamine oxidases (PAOs) catabolize the oxidative deamination of the polyamines (PAs) spermine (Spm) and spermidine (Spd). Most of the phylogenetic studies performed to analyze the plant PAO family took into account only a limited number and/or taxonomic representation of plant PAOs sequences.

Results: Here, we constructed a plant PAO protein sequence database and identified four subfamilies.

Response to long-term NaHCO3-derived alkalinity in model Lotus japonicus Ecotypes Gifu B-129 and Miyakojima MG-20: transcriptomic profiling and physiological characterization.

The current knowledge regarding transcriptomic changes induced by alkalinity on plants is scarce and limited to studies where plants were subjected to the alkaline salt for periods not longer than 48 h, so there is no information available regarding the regulation of genes involved in the generation of a new homeostatic cellular condition after long-term alkaline stress. Lotus japonicus is a model legume broadly used to study many important physiological processes including biotic interactions and biotic and abiotic stresses. In the present study, we characterized phenotipically the response to alkaline stress of the most widely used L.

Defense responses in two ecotypes of Lotus japonicus against non-pathogenic Pseudomonas syringae.

Lotus japonicus is a model legume broadly used to study many important processes as nitrogen fixing nodule formation and adaptation to salt stress. However, no studies on the defense responses occurring in this species against invading microorganisms have been carried out at the present. Understanding how this model plant protects itself against pathogens will certainly help to develop more tolerant cultivars in economically important Lotus species as well as in other legumes.