Balancing growth amidst salt stress - lifestyle perspectives from the extremophyte model Schrenkiella parvula.

Schrenkiella parvula, a leading extremophyte model in Brassicaceae, can grow and complete its lifecycle under multiple environmental stresses, including high salinity. Yet, the key physiological and structural traits underlying its stress-adapted lifestyle are unknown along with trade-offs when surviving salt stress at the expense of growth and reproduction. We aimed to identify the influential adaptive trait responses that lead to stress-resilient and uncompromised growth across developmental stages when treated with salt at levels known to inhibit growth in Arabidopsis and most crops.

Living with high potassium: Balance between nutrient acquisition and K-induced salt stress signaling.

High potassium (K) in the growth medium induces salinity stress in plants. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to K-induced salt stress are virtually unknown. We examined Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and its extremophyte relative Schrenkiella parvula using a comparative multiomics approach to identify cellular processes affected by excess K and understand which deterministic regulatory pathways are active to avoid tissue damages while sustaining growth.

Hitching a Ride: Examining the Ability of a Specialist Baculovirus to Translocate through Its Insect Host's Food Plant.

Plant vascular systems can translocate the entomopathogen from the soil into plant tissues. However, whether other soil dwelling entomopathogens utilize plant vascular tissue for movement has not yet been fully explored. We used multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (SfMNPV) to evaluate whether baculoviruses, a common entomopathogen and bioinsecticide, can be transported through the plant vascular pathways of .

A Tale of Two Transcriptomic Responses in Agricultural Pests via Host Defenses and Viral Replication.

Autographa californica Multiple Nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) is a baculovirus that causes systemic infections in many arthropod pests. The specific molecular processes underlying the biocidal activity of AcMNPV on its insect hosts are largely unknown. We describe the transcriptional responses in two major pests, (fall armyworm) and (cabbage looper), to determine the host-pathogen responses during systemic infection, concurrently with the viral response to the host.

Plant Growth and Agrobacterium-mediated Floral-dip Transformation of the Extremophyte Schrenkiella parvula.

Schrenkiella parvula is an extremophyte adapted to various abiotic stresses, including multiple ion toxicity stresses. Despite high-quality genomic resources available to study how plants adapt to environmental stresses, its value as a functional genomics model and tool has been limited by the lack of a feasible transformation system. In this protocol, we report how to generate stable transgenic S.

Transcriptomic view of survival during early seedling growth of the extremophyte Haloxylon ammodendron.

Seedling establishment in an extreme environment requires an integrated genomic and physiological response to survive multiple abiotic stresses. The extremophyte, Haloxylon ammodendron is a pioneer species capable of colonizing temperate desert sand dunes. We investigated the induced and basal transcriptomes in H.

Halophytism: What Have We Learnt From Relative Model Systems?

Halophytes are able to thrive in salt concentrations that would kill 99% of other plant species, and identifying their salt-adaptive mechanisms has great potential for improving the tolerance of crop plants to salinized soils. Much research has focused on the physiological basis of halophyte salt tolerance, whereas the elucidation of molecular mechanisms has traditionally lagged behind due to the absence of a model halophyte system. However, over the last decade and a half, two Arabidopsis () relatives, and , have been established as transformation-competent models with various genetic resources including high-quality genome assemblies.