T he availability of phosphorus and nitrogen are major limitations to plant growth, and as such our agricultural processes apply these nutrients at high concentrations to crop plants through fertilizer. Although fertilizer application has greatly enhanced food production it comes at a significant price: the chemical fixation of nitrogen depends on high levels of fossil fuels, making fertilizers...

Arabica coffee is the key cash crop and top mainstay of the Ethiopian economy and requires sustainable production methods. Southwestern natural forests, the site of this study, are believed to be the centre of origin and diversity for Coffea arabica and still harbour wild Arabica coffee that may serve as an important gene pool for future breeding. Cost reductions, sustainability and quality imp...

Most land plants live in a symbiotic association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) that belong to the phylum Glomeromycota. Although a number of plant genes involved in the plant-AMF interactions have been identified by analyzing mutants, the ability to rapidly manipulate gene expression to study the potential functions of new candidate genes remains unrealized. We analyzed changes in gen...

July 2006 | Volume 4 | Issue 7 | e239 The interaction between plant roots and Glomeromycota fungi [1]—arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM)—is probably the most important symbiotic association in nature. More than 80% of all higher land plant species are able to benefi t from the fungus’ ability to extract nutrients, mostly phosphorus, from the soil. In exchange, it has been estimated that worldwide up to...

Symbiosis, defined as prolonged and close association of two or more different organisms, is a major driving force for expansion of biological diversity from genes to ecosystems. In the most intimate form, the symbiont lives inside the cells of its host, is heritable, and the two parties could no longer survive independently. Such heritable endosymbiosis blurs the line of what constitutes an in...

土壤微生物是表征土壤质量的敏感指标，采用Illumina HiSep技术分析不同覆盖方式对半湿润易旱区农田土壤微生物群落结构及多样性的影响，以期从微生物的角度评价农田不同覆盖措施对土壤质量的影响。设3种覆盖模式：平作塑料薄膜覆盖（P）、平作秸秆覆盖（S）和垄膜沟播覆盖（R），以平作不覆盖为对照（CK），研究不同覆盖模式下土壤微生物群落变化，分析各土壤理化因子与微生物群落之间的关系。研究结果表明各覆盖处理显著改变了土壤微生物的群落结构和多样性。所有土壤样品中，细菌群落的优势菌门是变形菌门（Proteobacteria）、酸杆菌门（Acidobacteria）、放线菌门（Actinobacteria），丰度分别为29.69%、28.28%和20.76%，CK处理下较高的土壤pH和低NO3-N含量抑制了土壤中酸杆菌门（Acidobacteria）的生长繁殖，而放线菌门...

In plants, long distance transport of sugars from photosynthetic source leaves to sink organs comprises different crucial steps depending on the species and organ types. Sucrose, the main carbohydrate for long distance transport is synthesized in the mesophyll and then loaded into the phloem. After long distance transport through the phloem vessels, sucrose is finally unloaded towards sink orga...

Inorganic phosphate (Pi), the main form of phosphorus used by plants, is one of the most important limiting factors for plant growth. In the soil soluble Pi that is readily available for uptake, occurs at very low concentrations (Schachtman et al., 1998). One adaptation of plants to low Pi availability is the symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) of the phylum Glomeromycota. The fung...

T he research field of plant–microbe interactions experiences a surge of fundamental insights thanks to the adoption of a restricted number of model systems. However, to see the broader picture and understand the complexity of evolutionary relationships, it is equally important to study relevant non-model interactions. This task is (still) difficult because of the lack of genomics and genetics ...

A total of 290 florideophyte samples from the Hawaiian Rhodophyta Biodiversity Survey, spanning 17 orders of red algae, were sequenced for the mitochondrial COI DNA barcode, partial nuclear LSU rRNA gene, and plastid UPA rRNA marker. COI was A-T rich (> 60% overall) in comparison to the two rRNA markers, and was also the least conserved, with the third codon position showing the most substituti...