Molecular mechanisms of flowering time differentiation revealed by transcriptomic sequencing and de novo analysis in Chinese invasive populations of Ambrosia artemisiifolia.

Background: Ambrosia artemisiifolia is a highly invasive herb with deleterious effects on public health and agricultural systems. Flowering time in this species has been reported to vary along a latitudinal gradient, which may contribute to local adaptation and invasion success in China. However, the molecular basis for the flowering time differentiation remains unclear.

The contribution of tropical long-term studies to mycology.

Fungi are arguably the most diverse eukaryotic kingdom of organisms in terms of number of estimated species, trophic and life history strategies, and their functions in ecosystems. However, our knowledge of fungi is limited due to a distributional bias; the vast majority of available data on fungi have been compiled from non-tropical regions. Far less is known about fungi from tropical regions, with the bulk of these data being temporally limited surveys for fungal species diversity.

Dosage-sensitive maternal siRNAs determine hybridization success in Capsella.

Hybrid seed failure arising from wide crosses between plant species is a recurring obstacle in plant breeding, impeding the transfer of desirable traits. This postzygotic reproductive barrier primarily occurs in the endosperm, a tissue that nourishes the embryo and functions similarly to the placenta in mammals. We found that incompatible seeds show a loss of DNA methylation and chromatin condensation in the endosperm, similar to seeds lacking maternal RNA polymerase IV activity.

Enjoy the silence: Canonical and non-canonical RNA silencing activity during plant sexual reproduction.

Plants produce small RNAs that accomplish a surprisingly versatile number of functions. The heterogeneity of functions of plant small RNAs is evident at the tissue-specific level. In particular, in the last years, the study of their activity in reproductive tissues has unmasked an unexpected diversity in their biogenesis and roles.

DSM 17938 Produce Bioactive Components during Formulation in Sucrose.

Improved efficacy of probiotics can be achieved by using different strategies, including the optimization of production parameters. The impact of fermentation parameters on bacterial physiology is a frequently investigated topic, but what happens during the formulation, i.e.

Foraging bee species differentially prioritize quantity and quality of floral rewards.

Pollinator-plant interactions represent a core mutualism that underpins biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems, and the loss of flowering plants is a major driver of pollinator declines. Bee attraction to flowers is mediated by both quantity of resources (the number of available flowers for exploration) and quality of resources (pollen nutritional value), but whether and how bees prioritize these factors is not well understood. Here, we leveraged a unique plant system to investigate the floral factors influencing bee foraging decisions.

Light at the end of the tunnel: FRAP assays combined with super resolution microscopy confirm the presence of a tubular vacuole network in meristematic plant cells.

Plant vacuoles play key roles in cellular homeostasis, performing catabolic and storage functions, and regulating pH and ion balance. Despite their essential role, there is still no consensus on how vacuoles are established. A model proposing that the endoplasmic reticulum is the main contributor of membrane for growing vacuoles in meristematic cells has been challenged by a study proposing that plant vacuoles are formed de novo by homotypic fusion of multivesicular bodies (MVBs).

An Improved Chromosome-scale Genome Assembly and Population Genetics resource for Populus tremula.

Aspen (Populus tremula L.) is a keystone species and a model system for forest tree genomics. We present an updated resource comprising a chromosome-scale assembly, population genetics and genomics data.

Transcriptomic and functional analyses on a Botrytis cinerea multidrug-resistant (MDR) strain provides new insights into the potential molecular mechanisms of MDR and fitness.

Botrytis cinerea is a notorious pathogen causing pre- and post-harvest spoilage in many economically important crops. Excessive application of site-specific fungicides to control the pathogen has led to the selection of strains possessing target site alterations associated with resistance to these fungicides and/or strains overexpressing efflux transporters associated with multidrug resistance (MDR). MDR in B.

Decrease due to pollution in the rhizosphere microbial diversity can be amended by supplementation from adapted plants of another species.

Manipulating the rhizosphere microbiome to enhance plant stress tolerance is an environmentally friendly technology and a renewable resource to restore degraded environments. Here we suggest a sustainable bioremediation strategy on the example of Stebnyk mine tailings storage. We consider Salicornia europaea rhizosphere community, and the ability of the phytoremediation plant Salix viminalis to recruit its beneficial microbiome to mediate the pollution stress at the Stebnyk mine tailings storage.

TermineR: Extracting information on endogenous proteolytic processing from shotgun proteomics data.

State-of-the-art mass spectrometers combined with modern bioinformatics algorithms for peptide-to-spectrum matching (PSM) with robust statistical scoring allow for more variable features (i.e., post-translational modifications) being reliably identified from (tandem-) mass spectrometry data, often without the need for biochemical enrichment.

Seed longevity is controlled by metacaspases.

To survive extreme desiccation, seeds enter a period of quiescence that can last millennia. Seed quiescence involves the accumulation of protective storage proteins and lipids through unknown adjustments in protein homeostasis (proteostasis). Here, we show that mutation of all six type-II metacaspase (MCA-II) proteases in Arabidopsis thaliana disturbs proteostasis in seeds.

Impact of Lactobacillaceae supplementation on the multi-organ axis during MASLD.

The gut-liver axis plays a pivotal role in maintaining body homeostasis. Disruption of the gut-liver axis is linked to a multitude of diseases, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Probiotic strains from the Lactobacillaceae family are commonly used to mitigate experimental MASLD.

Fumarate reductase drives methane emissions in the genus Oryza through differential regulation of the rhizospheric ecosystem.

The emergence of waterlogged Oryza species ∼15Mya (million years ago) supplied an anoxic warm bed for methane-producing microorganisms, and methane emissions have hence accompanied the entire evolutionary history of the genus Oryza. However, to date no study has addressed how methane emission has been altered during Oryza evolution. In this paper we used a diverse collection of wild and cultivated Oryza species to study the relation between Oryza evolution and methane emissions.

Hop stunt viroid infection induces heterochromatin reorganization.

Viroids are pathogenic noncoding RNAs that completely rely on their host molecular machinery to accomplish their life cycle. Several interactions between viroids and their host molecular machinery have been identified, including interference with epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation. Despite this, whether viroids influence changes in other epigenetic marks such as histone modifications remained unknown.

Rice rhizobiome engineering for climate change mitigation.

The year 2023 was the warmest year since 1850. Greenhouse gases, including CO and methane, played a significant role in increasing global warming. Among these gases, methane has a 25-fold greater impact on global warming than CO.

Is There Evidence to Support Probiotic Use for Healthy People?

Probiotics are typically marketed as foods and dietary supplements, categories for products intended to maintain health in generally healthy populations and which, unlike drugs, cannot claim to treat or cure disease. This review addresses the existing evidence that probiotics are beneficial to healthy people. Our approach was to perform a descriptive review of efficacy evidence that probiotics can prevent urinary, vaginal, gastrointestinal, and respiratory infections, and improve risk factors associated with cardiovascular health or reduce antibiotic use.

Epigenetic and transcriptional consequences in the endosperm of chemically induced transposon mobilization in Arabidopsis.

Genomic imprinting, an epigenetic phenomenon leading to parent-of-origin-specific gene expression, has independently evolved in the endosperm of flowering plants and the placenta of mammals-tissues crucial for nurturing embryos. While transposable elements (TEs) frequently colocalize with imprinted genes and are implicated in imprinting establishment, direct investigations of the impact of de novo TE transposition on genomic imprinting remain scarce. In this study, we explored the effects of chemically induced transposition of the Copia element ONSEN on genomic imprinting in Arabidopsis thaliana.

ProEnd: A Comprehensive Database for Identifying HbYX Motif-Containing Proteins Across the Tree of Life.

The proteasome plays a crucial role in cellular homeostasis by degrading misfolded, damaged, or unnecessary proteins. Understanding the regulatory mechanisms of proteasome activity is vital, particularly the interaction with activators containing the hydrophobic-tyrosine-any amino acid (HbYX) motif. Here, we present ProEnd, a comprehensive database designed to identify and catalog HbYX motif-containing proteins across the tree of life.

subsp. BG-L47 boosts growth and activity of DSM 17938 and its extracellular membrane vesicles.

Unlabelled: The aim of this study was to identify a strain that improves the performance of DSM 17938. Initial tests showed that subsp. strains boosted the growth of DSM 17938 during like conditions.