Project description:Global warming has become a critical challenge to food safety, causing severe yield losses of major crops worldwide. Here, we report that the endophytic bacterium Enterobacter sp. SA187 induces thermotolerance of crops in a sustainable manner. Microbiome diversity of wheat plants is positively influenced by SA187 in open field agriculture, indicating that beneficial microbes can be a powerful tool to enhance agriculture in open field agriculture.
Project description:To exploite S. sclerotiorum to identify differential fungal responses leading to either an endophytic or a pathogenic lifestyle during colonization of both asymptomatic host and symptomatic host We then performed gene expression profiling analysis using data obtained from RNA-seq of 9 different samples after 2 days.
Project description:With this experiment we aimed do identify eventual genes that are differentially expressed by the fungal pathogen Blumeria graminis triticale when it grows on two different hosts (wheat and triticale) We used to fungal isolates, for each of them we infected wheat and triticale and we extracted RNA (and sequenced) from the infected plant tissue. Three technical replicates for each combinations plant-pathogen were used
Project description:In this study, we used the Affymetrix wheat GeneChip to examine the transcript accumulation in a near-isogenic line pair carrying resistant and susceptible alleles at the wheat Fhb1 locus. The objectives of this study were: (1) to identify the overall response in wheat to F. graminearum infection; (2) to identify key genes involved in FHB resistance/susceptibility pathways in wheat; (3) to compare the transcript profiles of wheat and barley during F. graminearum infection; and (4) to examine the relationship between transcript accumulation, disease severity, fungal biomass and trichothecene accumulation in wheat. ****[PLEXdb(http://www.plexdb.org) has submitted this series at GEO on behalf of the original contributor, Seungho Cho. The equivalent experiment is TA20 at PLEXdb.]
Project description:Recent attempts to increase endogenous disease resistance of plants by overexpression of anti-fungal transgenes have shown a potential of this method. However, it has also been shown that such improvements are usually small. One of the obvious reasons for this low anti-fungal effect might be the regulation of endogenous genes in parallel. In this project, we will study the effect of anti-fungal transgenes on the endogenous gene expression. Such effects might relate to substantial equivalence which is a biosafety issue of concern to the public. The GeneChip Wheat Genome Array will be used to detect expression of defence response genes and key genes of metabolic pathways. We will use wheat plants transformed with anti-fungal gene of specific effect against a small group of seed transmitted, pathogenic fungi (KP4 against smuts and bunts). Transformed spring wheat line will be challenged by stinking smut (inhibited by KP4). The effect on the endogenous gene expression will be tested for plants grown in the field in collaboration with the USDA Department. This work will contribute to our understanding of plant defence responses in general and may allow improving strategies to strengthen these responses.
Project description:Healthy plants are vital for successful, long-duration missions in space, as they provide the crew with life support, food production, and psychological benefits. The microorganisms that associate with plant tissues play a critical role in improving plant growth, health, and production. To that end, it is necessary to develop methodologies that investigate the metabolic activities of the plant’s microbiome in orbit to enable rapid responses regarding the care of plants in space. In this study, we developed a protocol to characterize the endophytic and epiphytic microbial metatranscriptome of red romaine lettuce, a key salad crop that was grown under International Space Station (ISS)-like conditions. Microbial transcripts enriched from host-microbe total RNA were sequenced using the Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencing platform. Results showed that this enrichment approach was highly reproducible and effective for rapid on-site detection of microbial transcriptional activity. Taxonomic analysis based on 16S and 18S rRNA transcripts identified that the top five most abundant phyla in the lettuce microbiome were Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Ascomycota. The metatranscriptomic analysis identified the expression of genes involved in many metabolic pathways, including carbohydrate metabolism, energy metabolism, and signal transduction. Network analyses of the expression data show that, within the signal transduction pathway of the fungal community, the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase signaling pathway was tightly regulated across all samples and could be a potential driver for fungal proliferation. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of using MinION-based metatranscriptomics of enriched microbial RNA as a method for rapid, on-site monitoring of the transcriptional activity of crop microbiomes, thereby helping to facilitate and maintain plant health for on-orbit space food production.