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:Brines, potentially formed by the deliquescence and freezing point depression of highly hygroscopic salts, such as perchlorates (ClO4-), may allow for the spatial and temporal stability of liquid water on present-day Mars. It is therefore of great interest to explore the microbial habitability of Martian brines, for which our current understanding is, however, still limited. Putative microbes growing in the perchlorate-rich Martian regolith may be harmed due to the induction of various stressors including osmotic, chaotropic, and oxidative stress. We adapted the model organism Escherichia coli to increasing sodium perchlorate concentrations and used a proteomic approach to identify the adaptive phenotype. Separately, the microbe was adapted to elevated concentrations of NaCl and glycerol, which enabled us to distinguish perchlorate-specific adaptation mechanisms from those in response to osmotic, ion and water activity stress. We found that the perchlorate-specific stress-response focused on pathways alleviating damage to nucleic acids, presumably caused by increased chaotropic and/ or oxidative stress. The significant enrichments that have been found include DNA repair, RNA methylation and de novo IMP biosynthesis. Our study provides insights into the adaptive mechanisms necessary for microorganisms to survive under perchlorate stress, with implications for understanding the habitability of Martian brines.
Project description:The study of the survival of terrestrial microorganisms in Martian conditions, especially in the presence of perchlorates, offers crucial insights for astrobiology. This research investigates the resilience of the extremophilic black fungus Rhinocladiella similis to the exposure to magnesium perchlorate and UV-C radiation, simulating a Martian environment. The results show that R. similis, previously known for its remarkable tolerance to acidic conditions, exhibits significant resistance to UV-C radiation combined with perchlorate and high concentrations of magnesium perchlorate.
Project description:Pao extract is an herbal preparation of the bark of an amazonian rain forest tree,Pao Pereira (Geissospermum vellosii),which could inhibit Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).Characterizing the molecular alterations of BPH1 and WPMY-1 cells treated with PAO is important for understanding the molecular mechanisms of PAO inhibiting BPH. We used microarrays to detail the RNA expression.
Project description:Global climate change increasingly challenges agriculture with flooding and salinity. Among strategies to enhance crop resilience to these stresses, we showed two mangrove strains that can enhance flooding and salinity tolerance in rice plants. Two strains massively enhanced the growth and yield of Oryza sativa cv. Nipponbare under hydroponic growth conditions with and without salt treatment. The bacteria-induced transcriptome changes in O. sativa roots related to ABA-signaling with suberin deposition in root tissues explain the altered responses of colonized rice plants to hypoxic and saline stress conditions. While enhancing yield and grain quality, bacterially colonized rice plants also show much earlier flowering, thereby massively shortening the life cycle of rice plants and opening the possibility for an additional harvest per year. These results show that microbes can be a powerful tool for enhancing the yield and resilience of rice to hypoxic and saline stress conditions.