PLANT—MICROBIOME INTERACTIONS IN THE LIGHT OF THE HOLOBIONTIC CONCEPT Higher organisms evolved in the omnipresence of microbes, which could be of pathogenic or symbiotic nature. A framework of response patterns evolved which is known as innate immunity. A major part of this response is the recognition of microbial-associated molecular patterns (MAMP) such as chitin or lipochitooligosaccharides,...

Studies have demonstrated that plant extracts possess various biological characteristics, including immunomodulatory activity. Heracleum persicum Desf. (Apiaceae), a medicinal plant native to Iran, was studied for its immunomodulatory activity. Immunomodulatory activity of different doses of an aqueous extract of H. persicum, was evaluated in female Swiss albino mice. Mice were treated with thr...

This paper describes work to determine whether soybean cultivars differ in their physiological response to applied abscisic acid. ABA is a naturally occurring plant hormone that affects a number of physiological processes, including leaf abscission, leaf senescence, seed germination, bud dormancy, flowering, and tuberization (4). Usually, ABA is applied in various concentrations to whole plants...

The importance of time of inoculation and bacterial concentration in the inoculum on the response of wheat plants was evaluated, using eight strains of rhizosphere bacteria. The optima1 bacterial concentration, for all strains, was 105-IO6 colony forming units ml-‘. Plant response was highest when seeds had been inoculated but was less when seedlings were inoculated. Successive inoculations som...

Verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) can contaminate crop plants, potentially using them as secondary hosts, which can lead to food-borne infection. Currently, little is known about the influence of the specific plant species on the success of bacterial colonization. As such, we compared the ability of the VTEC strain, E. coli O157:H7 'Sakai,' to colonize the roots and leaves of four leafy...