Non-coding small RNAs (sRNAs) in plants have important roles in regulating biological processes, including development, reproduction, and stress responses. Recent research indicates significant roles for sRNA-mediated gene silencing during plant-hemipteran interactions that involve all three of these biological processes. Plant responses to hemipteran feeding are determined by changes in the ho...

Background&Aims: Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) are among the most common nosocomial pathogens worldwide. The intestinal tract provides a major source for transmission of these bacteria. Probiotics are living microorganisms that moderate use of them has inhibitory effect on intestinal colonization by enteric pathogens. We examined the effect of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) on inhibi...

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens GB03 has been used as a representative commercialized strain of the bacilli for biological control against a broad spectrum of plant pathogens and as a bio-fertilizer to promote growth and yield of field crops for more than two decades. Herein, we present the genome sequence and a brief analysis of strain GB03.

As a rule, all species of animals are regulated by other living organisms (antagonists) which are not under manipulation by man but they are naturally occurring in our surrounding environment. The process called natural biological control when man attempts to use naturally occurring antagonists to lower a pest population which would cause losses to plant or animals. Biological control is an eco...

BACKGROUND Bacterial colonization and recurrent infections of the respiratory tract contribute to the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). There is evidence that exacerbations of COPD are provoked by new bacterial strains acquired from the environment. Using a murine model of colonization, we examined whether chronic exposure to cigarette smoke (CS) promotes nasopharynge...

UNLABELLED Vibrio fischeri, the bacterial symbiont of the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, uses quorum sensing to control genes involved in bioluminescence, host colonization, and other biological processes. Previous work has shown that AinS/R-directed quorum sensing also regulates the expression of rpoQ (VF_A1015), a gene annotated as an RpoS-like sigma factor. In this study, we demo...

ARTICLE HISTORY Received 24 May 2017 Accepted 7 June 2017 ABSTRACT Plants have evolved sophisticated surveillance and defense mechanisms against constant attacks by different types of microbial pathogens including viruses. Nucleotide-based RNA silencing and receptorbased innate immunity constitute the primary plant defense to viral infection. To establish their infections, plant viruses have al...

Fungal endophytes (FE) are an important component of leaf microbial communities. They usually live asymptomatically within tissues; however, FE can provide additional defensive features against pathogens to the host. Leaf functional traits (LFTs) regulate entry, colonization and community composition in plants. There is evidence that thin leaves with less structural chemical but high nutrient c...

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) pericarp pigments can affect grain quality. Pigments found in vegetative parts of the plant and in the peduncle and glumes of flowers (12,44) also may indirectly impact sorghum grain quality. Pigments associated with the “purple wound response” accumulate following mechanical injury, insect feeding, or pathogen invasion (22,31). Grain with nonpigmented peri...

Fungal plant pathogens have evolved diverse strategies to overcome the multilayered plant defence responses that confront them upon host invasion. Here we show that pathogenicity of the cucumber anthracnose fungus, Colletotrichum lagenarium, and the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe grisea, requires a gene orthologous to Saccharomyces cerevisiae SSD1, a regulator of cell wall assembly. Screening f...