1,029 results match your criteria: "Institute of Plant and Microbial biology[Affiliation]"

sp. nov., a potently antifungal bacterium isolated from moss.

Int J Syst Evol Microbiol

January 2025

Department of Microbiology, Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zrich, Zurich, Switzerland.

A novel strain, 681, was isolated from a moss sample taken from the Chrutzelried woods in Canton Zürich, Switzerland. The strain showed potent activity against several fungi and oomycetes. It was affiliated to the genus by 16S rRNA gene sequence phylogeny.

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Life cycle and morphogenetic differentiation in heteromorphic cell types of a cosmopolitan marine microalga.

New Phytol

December 2024

Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel.

Gephyrocapsa huxleyi is a prevalent, bloom-forming phytoplankton species in the oceans. It exhibits a complex haplodiplontic life cycle, featuring a diploid-calcified phase, a haploid phase and a third 'decoupled' phase produced during viral infection. Decoupled cells display a haploid-like phenotype, but are diploid.

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The rice brittle culm is a cell wall composition changed mutant suitable for studying mechanical strength in rice. However, a thorough investigation of brittle culm has been limited due to the lack of diverse brittle mutants on similar genetic backgrounds in cell walls. In this study, we obtained 45 various brittle mutant lines (BMLs) from the IR64 mutant pool induced by sodium azide mutagenesis using the finger-bending method and texture profile analysis.

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Root Exudation: An In-Depth Experimental Guide.

Plant Cell Environ

December 2024

Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.

Plants exude a wide variety of compounds into the rhizosphere, modulating soil functioning and diversity. The number of studies investigating exudation has exponentially increased over the past decades. Yet, the high inter-study variability of the results is slowing down our understanding of root-soil interactions.

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Arabidopsis WALL-ASSOCIATED KINASES are not required for oligogalacturonide-induced signaling and immunity.

Plant Cell

December 2024

Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology and Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zürich, Zürich 8008, Switzerland.

Carbohydrate-based cell wall signaling impacts plant growth, development, and stress responses; however, how cell wall signals are perceived and transduced remains poorly understood. Several cell wall breakdown products have been described as typical damage-associated molecular patterns that activate plant immunity, including pectin-derived oligogalacturonides (OGs). Receptor kinases of the WALL-ASSOCIATED KINASE (WAK) family bind pectin and OGs and were previously proposed as OG receptors.

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The ability of plants to perceive and react to biotic and abiotic stresses is critical for their health. We recently identified a core set of genes consistently induced by members of the leaf microbiota, termed general non-self response (GNSR) genes. Here we show that GNSR components conversely impact leaf microbiota composition.

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Ferns belong to species-rich group of land plants, encompassing more than 11,000 extant species, and are crucial for reflecting terrestrial ecosystem changes. However, our understanding of their biodiversity hotspots, particularly in Southeast Asia, remains limited due to scarce genetic data. Despite harboring around one-third of the world's fern species, less than 6% of Southeast Asian ferns have been DNA-sequenced.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cyanobacteria, specifically Thermosynechococcus taiwanensis, are being studied for their ecological role and biotechnological potential, including bioethanol production and pollutant degradation.
  • Researchers isolated 27 novel strains from hot springs in Taiwan and performed genomic analyses on 32 strains, revealing a total of around 3,030 genes in their pan-genome and significant genetic diversity.
  • The study identified that within two major populations of this species, selective sweeps targeted different genes related to key functions such as photosynthesis and motility, although the reasons for population divergence remain unclear.
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The basal endosperm transfer layer (BETL) of the maize (Zea mays L.) kernel is composed of transfer cells for nutrient transport to nourish the developing kernel. To understand the spatiotemporal processes required for BETL development, we characterized 2 unstable factor for orange1 (Zmufo1) mutant alleles.

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Chromatin Immunoprecipitation for Standard, Rare, or Weakly Binding Proteins.

Methods Mol Biol

November 2024

Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Various proteins interact with specific genome regions, playing crucial roles in gene regulation. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is the most commonly used method to study protein-DNA interactions in vivo. By combining ChIP with high-throughput sequencing, ChIP-seq allows for studying the genome-wide localization of proteins.

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Genome-based analysis allows for large-scale classification of diverse bacteria and has been widely adopted for delineating species. Unfortunately, for higher taxonomic ranks such as genus, establishing a generally accepted approach based on genome analysis is challenging. While core-genome phylogenies depict the evolutionary relationships among species, determining the correspondence between clades and genera may not be straightforward.

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During RNA turnover, the action of endo- and exo-ribonucleases can yield RNA decay intermediates with specific 5' ends. These RNA decay intermediates have been demonstrated to be the outcome of decapping, microRNA-directed endo-cleavage, or the protected fragments of ribosomes and exon-junction complexes. Therefore, global analysis of RNA decay intermediates can facilitate studies of many RNA decay pathways.

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Mitochondrial AOX1a and an HO feed-forward signalling loop regulate flooding tolerance in rice.

Plant Biotechnol J

November 2024

Molecular and Cell Biology, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica, and Graduate Institute of Life Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.

Flooding is a widespread natural disaster that causes tremendous yield losses of global food production. Rice is the only cereal capable of growing in aquatic environments. Direct seeding by which seedlings grow underwater is an important cultivation method for reducing rice production cost.

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Plant pattern recognition receptors: from evolutionary insight to engineering.

Nat Rev Genet

November 2024

Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

The plant immune system relies on germline-encoded pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that sense foreign and plant-derived molecular patterns, and signal health threats. Genomic and pangenomic data sets provide valuable insights into the evolution of PRRs and their molecular triggers, which is furthering our understanding of plant-pathogen co-evolution and convergent evolution. Moreover, in silico and in vivo methods of PRR identification have accelerated the characterization of receptor-ligand complexes, and advances in protein structure prediction algorithms are revealing novel PRR sensor functions.

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The ubiquitin receptors RPN10 and RPN13 harbor multiple activities including ubiquitin binding; however, solid evidence connecting a particular activity to specific in vivo functions is scarce. Through complementation, the ubiquitin-binding site-truncated Arabidopsis RPN10 (N215) rescued the growth defects of , supporting the idea that the ubiquitin-binding ability of RPN10 is dispensable and N215, which harbors a vWA domain, is fully functional. Instead, a structural role played by RPN10 in the 26S proteasomes is likely vital in vivo.

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A peptide-receptor module links cell wall integrity sensing to pattern-triggered immunity.

Nat Plants

December 2024

Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Plants employ cell-surface receptors to perceive non- or altered-self, including the integrity of their cell wall. Here we identify a specific ligand-receptor module responsive to cell wall damage that potentiates immunity in Arabidopsis. Disruption of cell wall integrity by inhibition of cellulose biosynthesis promotes pattern-triggered immunity transcriptionally in a manner dependent on the receptor kinase MALE DISCOVERER 1-INTERACTING RECEPTOR-LIKE KINASE 2 (MIK2).

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The calcium-dependent protein kinase CPK28 regulates several stress pathways in multiple plant species. Here, we aimed to discover CPK28-associated proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana. We used affinity-based proteomics and identified several potential CPK28 binding partners, including the C7 Raf-like kinases MRK1, RAF26, and RAF39.

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Histone modifications can regulate transcription epigenetically by marking specific genomic loci, which can be mapped using chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq). Here we present QHistone, a predictive database of 1534 ChIP-seqs from 27 histone modifications in Arabidopsis, offering three key functionalities. Firstly, QHistone employs machine learning to predict the epigenomic profile of a query protein, characterized by its most associated histone modifications, and uses these modifications to infer the protein's role in transcriptional regulation.

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Article Synopsis
  • Plants use pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) like EFR and FLS2 to detect bacterial pathogens and activate their immune response via RBOHD.
  • QSK1, identified as a protein associated with the PRR-RBOHD complex, acts as a negative regulator by downregulating EFR and FLS2, leading to suppressed immunity.
  • The bacterial effector HopF2Pto manipulates QSK1 to inhibit immune responses, demonstrating the sophisticated interplay between plant defense mechanisms and pathogen strategies.
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The nonphototrophic hypocotyl 3 (NPH3) domain is plant specific and of unknown function. It is nearly always attached to an N-terminal BTB domain and a largely unstructured C-terminal region. Recent reports revealed NPH3-domain GTPase activity and connection to intracellular trafficking, condensate formation, membrane attachment of the C-terminal region for some NPH3-domain proteins and, at the physiological level, drought-related function for at least one NPH3-domain protein.

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Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the most prevalent endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and there is widespread concern about the adverse effects of EDCs on human health. However, the exact mechanism of these toxicities has still not been fully deciphered. Additionally, studies have reported the toxicological effects at far low doses to the generally considered no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) dose.

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Article Synopsis
  • * By introducing a lysine-null SUMO1 into specific mutant plants and developing a new enrichment method, researchers identified over 2,200 SUMOylation sites across 1,300 proteins involved in important nuclear processes.
  • * The findings reveal that SUMOylation enhances the stability of target proteins and differ from typical motifs found in other eukaryotes, providing a valuable resource for future studies on how SUMOylation affects protein function in plants. *
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The conserved AvrE family of bacterial effectors: functions and targets during pathogenesis.

Trends Microbiol

September 2024

Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; The Sainsbury Laboratory, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK. Electronic address:

The AvrE family of type III secreted effectors are highly conserved among many agriculturally important phytopathogenic bacteria. Despite their critical roles in the pathogenesis of phytopathogenic bacteria, the molecular functions and virulence mechanisms of these effectors have been largely unknown. However, recent studies have identified host-interacting proteins and demonstrated that AvrE family effectors can form water-permeable channels in the plant plasma membrane (PM) to create a hydrated and nutrient-rich extracellular space (apoplast) required for disease establishment.

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