The EDR1 gene of Arabidopsis has previously been reported to encode a Raf-like mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MAPKK) kinase, and to function as a negative regulator of disease resistance. A phylogenetic analysis of plant and animal protein kinases revealed, however, that plant Raf-like kinases are more closely related to animal mixed lineage kinases (MLKs) than Raf-like kinases, and a...

Crop losses caused by pests and weeds have been estimated at 42% worldwide, with plant pathogens responsible for almost $10 billion worth of damage in the USA in 1994 alone. Elevated carbon dioxide [ECO(2)] and associated climate change have the potential to accelerate plant pathogen evolution, which may, in turn, affect virulence. Plant-pathogen interactions under increasing CO(2) concentratio...

Plant resistance proteins mediate pathogen recognition and activate innate immune responses to restrict pathogen proliferation. One common feature of these proteins is an NB-ARC domain. In this study, we characterized a gene encoding a protein with an NB-ARC domain from wild Chinese grapevine Vitis pseudoreticulata accession "Baihe-35-1," which was identified in a transcriptome analysis of the ...

Chitin is a major component of fungal walls and insect exoskeletons. Plants produce chitinases upon pathogen attack and chito-oligomers induce defense responses in plants, though the exact mechanism behind this response is unknown. Using the ATH1 Affymetrix microarrays consisting of about 23,000 genes, we examined the response of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedlings to chito-octamers an...

To study the phylogenetic relationships between Erysiphe s. lat. and Microsphaera, the nucleotide sequences of internal transcribed spacers ofrDNA including 5.8S rDNA gene were determined for 23 taxa. The results showed that Erysiphe. section Erysiphe and Microsphaera are closely related and clustered together with strong bootstrap support (100%). All oftaxa belonging to this group produce coni...

Arabidopsis does not support the growth and asexual reproduction of the barley pathogen, Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei Bgh). A majority of germlings fail to penetrate the epidermal cell wall and papillae. To gain additional insight into this interaction, we determined whether the salicylic acid (SA) or jasmonate (JA)/ethylene (ET) defence pathways played a role in blocking barley powdery mild...