Paulownia tomentosa (Thunb.) Steud. is a very important hard woody plant, an extremely fast-growing tree and produce timber. Therefore, there is a demand to produce transgenic Paulownia plant resistant to bacterial infection. Microbial infection (especially bacterial one) is serious sever and cause a loss in plant productivity as they bear upon the character and amount of plan...

The extracellular matrix (ECM) of animal and plants cells plays important roles in viral diseases. While in animal cells extracellular matrix components can be exploited by viruses for recognition, attachment and entry, the plant cell wall acts as a physical barrier to viral entry and adds a higher level of difficulty to intercellular movement of viruses. Interestingly, both in plant and animal...

Maize is a vital food and feed grain worldwide. Aflatoxin and fumonisin, mycotoxins produced primarily by the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus Speare, and Fusarium moniliforme J. Sheld, respectively, are very potent carcinogens in both humans and livestock and can readily contaminate maize grain in the field and in storage. Stress on developing maize, particularly during rep...

Dickeya dadantii is a broad host range phytopathogenic bacterium provoking soft rot disease on many plants including Arabidopsis. We showed that, after D. dadantii infection, the expression of the Arabidopsis BOS1 gene was specifically induced by the production of the bacterial PelB/C pectinases able to degrade pectin. This prompted us to analyze the interaction between the bos1 mutant and D. d...

Effective population size (N(e)) determines the strength of genetic drift and the frequency of co-infection by multiple genotypes, making it a key factor in viral evolution. Experimental estimates of N(e) for different plant viruses have, however, rendered diverging results. The independent action hypothesis (IAH) states that each virion has a probability of infection, and that virions act inde...

Over the last decade, the plant disease huanglongbing (HLB) has emerged as a primary threat to citrus production worldwide. HLB is associated with infection by phloem-limited bacteria ('Candidatus Liberibacter' spp.) that are transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri. Transmission efficiency varies with vector-related aspects (e.g., developmental stage and feeding periods) but t...