Transgene expression in tick cells using Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Ticks transmit infectious agents to humans and other animals. Genetic manipulation of vectors like ticks could enhance the development of alternative disease control strategies. Transgene expression using the phytopathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens has been shown to promote the genetic modification of non-plant cells.

Functional study of TCP23 in Arabidopsis thaliana during plant development.

The TCP class of genes is found only in plants and is represented by the first three identified genes: teosinte branched 1, cycloidea and pcf. Members belonging to this class are important regulators of plant growth, development and control multiple traits in diverse plant species, including flower and petal asymmetry, plant architecture, leaf morphogenesis and senescence, embryo growth and circadian rhythm. Here we described a member of the TCP-P subfamily called AtTCP23.

Brassinosteroids modulate the efficiency of plant immune responses to microbe-associated molecular patterns.

Metazoans and plants use pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) to sense conserved microbial-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) in the extracellular environment. In plants, the bacterial MAMPs flagellin and elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) activate distinct, phylogenetically related cell surface pattern recognition receptors of the leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase (LRR-RK) family called FLS2 and EF-Tu receptor, respectively. BAK1 is an LRR-RK coreceptor for both FLS2 and EF-Tu receptor.

The Arabidopsis translocator protein (AtTSPO) is regulated at multiple levels in response to salt stress and perturbations in tetrapyrrole metabolism.

Background: The translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO), previously known as the peripheral-type benzodiazepine receptor (PBR), is important for many cellular functions in mammals and bacteria, such as steroid biosynthesis, cellular respiration, cell proliferation, apoptosis, immunomodulation, transport of porphyrins and anions. Arabidopsis thaliana contains a single TSPO/PBR-related gene with a 40 amino acid N-terminal extension compared to its homologs in bacteria or mammals suggesting it might be chloroplast or mitochondrial localized.

Results: To test if the TSPO N-terminal extension targets it to organelles, we fused three potential translational start sites in the TSPO cDNA to the N-terminus of GFP (AtTSPO:eGFP).

Extracellular leucine-rich repeats as a platform for receptor/coreceptor complex formation.

Receptor kinases with leucine-rich repeat (LRR) extracellular domains form the largest family of receptors in plants. In the few cases for which there is mechanistic information, ligand binding in the extracellular domain often triggers the recruitment of a LRR-coreceptor kinase. The current model proposes that this recruitment is mediated by their respective kinase domains.