Plant root transcriptome profiling reveals a strain-dependent response during Azospirillum-rice cooperation.

Cooperation involving Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria results in improvements of plant growth and health. While pathogenic and symbiotic interactions are known to induce transcriptional changes for genes related to plant defense and development, little is known about the impact of phytostimulating rhizobacteria on plant gene expression. This study aims at identifying genes significantly regulated in rice roots upon Azospirillum inoculation, considering possible favored interaction between a strain and its original host cultivar.

Expanding the Mimiviridae family using asparagine synthase as a sequence bait.

Since the pioneering Global Ocean Sampling project, large-scale sequencing of environmental DNA has become a common approach to assess the biodiversity of diverse environments, with an emphasis on microbial populations: unicellular eukaryotes ("protists"), bacteria, archaea, and their innumerous associated viruses and phages. However, the global analysis of the viral diversity ("the virome") from sequence data is fundamentally hampered by the lack of a universal gene that would allow their unambiguous identification and reliable separation from cellular microorganisms. The problem has been made even more difficult with the discovery of micron-sized giant viruses for which the usual fractionation protocol on a "sterilizing" filter is no longer an option.

Deep RNA sequencing reveals hidden features and dynamics of early gene transcription in Paramecium bursaria chlorella virus 1.

Paramecium bursaria chlorella virus 1 (PBCV-1) is the prototype of the genus Chlorovirus (family Phycodnaviridae) that infects the unicellular, eukaryotic green alga Chlorella variabilis NC64A. The 331-kb PBCV-1 genome contains 416 major open reading frames. A mRNA-seq approach was used to analyze PBCV-1 transcriptomes at 6 progressive times during the first hour of infection.