Isolation of genes conferring salt tolerance from Piriformospora indica by random overexpression in Escherichia coli.

Piriformospora indica, a root endophytic fungus identified in the Indian Thar desert, colonizes the roots of plants and provides resistance towards biotic stress as well as tolerance to abiotic stress in the plants. Despite its positive impact on the host, little is known about the P. indica genes that are involved in salt stress tolerance.

The evolutionary dynamics of variant antigen genes in Babesia reveal a history of genomic innovation underlying host-parasite interaction.

Babesia spp. are tick-borne, intraerythrocytic hemoparasites that use antigenic variation to resist host immunity, through sequential modification of the parasite-derived variant erythrocyte surface antigen (VESA) expressed on the infected red blood cell surface. We identified the genomic processes driving antigenic diversity in genes encoding VESA (ves1) through comparative analysis within and between three Babesia species, (B.