Pan-genome analysis identifies intersecting roles for specialized metabolites in potato pathogen inhibition.

Agricultural soil harbors a diverse microbiome that can form beneficial relationships with plants, including the inhibition of plant pathogens. spp. are one of the most abundant bacterial genera in the soil and rhizosphere and play important roles in promoting plant health.

Non-coding RNA polymerases that silence transposable elements and reprogram gene expression in plants.

Multisubunit RNA polymerase (Pol) complexes are the core machinery for gene expression in eukaryotes. The enzymes Pol I, Pol II and Pol III transcribe distinct subsets of nuclear genes. This family of nuclear RNA polymerases expanded in terrestrial plants by the duplication of Pol II subunit genes.

The NRPD1 N-terminus contains a Pol IV-specific motif that is critical for genome surveillance in Arabidopsis.

RNA-guided surveillance systems constrain the activity of transposable elements (TEs) in host genomes. In plants, RNA polymerase IV (Pol IV) transcribes TEs into primary transcripts from which RDR2 synthesizes double-stranded RNA precursors for small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that guide TE methylation and silencing. How the core subunits of Pol IV, homologs of RNA polymerase II subunits, diverged to support siRNA biogenesis in a TE-rich, repressive chromatin context is not well understood.