Root-Knot and Cyst Nematodes Activate Procambium-Associated Genes in Roots.

Developmental plasticity is one of the most striking features of plant morphogenesis, as plants are able to vary their shapes in response to environmental cues. Biotic or abiotic stimuli often promote organogenesis events in plants not observed under normal growth conditions. Root-knot nematodes (RKNs) are known to parasitize multiple species of rooting plants and to induce characteristic tissue expansion called galls or root-knots on the roots of their hosts by perturbing the plant cellular machinery.

HIV-1 Tat and Viral Latency: What We Can Learn from Naturally Occurring Sequence Variations.

Despite the effective use of antiretroviral therapy, the remainder of a latently HIV-1-infected reservoir mainly in the resting memory CD4 T lymphocyte subset has provided a great setback toward viral eradication. While host transcriptional silencing machinery is thought to play a dominant role in HIV-1 latency, HIV-1 protein such as Tat, may affect both the establishment and the reversal of latency. Indeed, mutational studies have demonstrated that insufficient Tat transactivation activity can result in impaired transcription of viral genes and the establishment of latency in cell culture experiments.