Before the advent of molecular phylogenetics, species concepts in the downy mildews, an economically important group of obligate biotrophic oomycete pathogens, have mostly been based upon host range and morphology. While molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed a narrow host range for many downy mildew species, others, like Pseudoperonospora cubensis affect even different genera. Although ...

Fern-feeder aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in China are represented by 13 species in 10 genera, including a new genus, Vietaphis gen nov., a new species, Vietaphis aliquantus sp nov., from Guizhou and Tibet on Plagiogyria japonicum, and a new subspecies, Amphorophora scabripes galba ssp nov., from Guizhou on Pentarhizidium intermedium. Two genera, Amphorophora Buckton and Idiopterus Davis, and f...

Crenate broomrape (Orobanche crenata) is a root parasitic weed that represents a major constraint for grain legume production in Mediterranean and West Asian countries. Medicago truncatula has emerged as an important model plant species for structural and functional genomics. The close phylogenic relationship of M. truncatula with crop legumes increases its value as a resource for understanding...

At the 2nd Medicago meeting (a satellite of the 1999 IS-MPMI meeting in Amsterdam), investigators perceived a need for standardization of genetic nomenclature in Medicago truncatula, due to the rapid growth of research on this species in the past few years. Establishment of such standards grew out of discussions begun at this meeting and continued electronically throughout the M. truncatula com...

The LEED..PEED (LP) gene family in Medicago truncatula (A17) is composed of 13 genes coding small putatively secreted peptides with one to two conserved domains of negatively charged residues. This family is not present in the genomes of Glycine max, Lotus japonicus, or the IRLC species Cicer arietinum. LP genes were also not detected in a Trifolium pratense draft genome or Pisum sativum nodule...

The rhizobia present in a single arid region Tunisian soil that nodulate Medicago laciniata and Medicago truncatula were compared. All isolates, 40 from each host, were Sinorhizobium meliloti based on 16S rRNA polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) patterns and subsequent confirmation by sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA genes in four representatives from ...

In many legumes, root entry of symbiotic nitrogen-fixing rhizobia occurs via host-constructed tubular tip-growing structures known as infection threads (ITs). Here, we have used a confocal microscopy live-tissue imaging approach to investigate early stages of IT formation in Medicago truncatula root hairs (RHs) expressing fluorescent protein fusion reporters. This has revealed that ITs only ini...

LYK3 is a lysin motif receptor-like kinase of Medicago truncatula, which is essential for the establishment of the nitrogen-fixing, root nodule symbiosis with Sinorhizobium meliloti. LYK3 is a putative receptor of S. meliloti Nod factor signals, but little is known of how it is regulated and how it transduces these symbiotic signals. In a screen for LYK3-interacting proteins, we identified M. t...