Publications

the bile acid deoxycholate elicits defences in arabidopsis and reduces bacterial infection.	disease has an effect on crop yields, causing significant losses. as the worldwide demand for agricultural products increases, there is a need to pursue the development of new methods to protect crops from disease. one mechanism of plant protection is through the activation of the plant immune system. by exogenous application, 'plant activator molecules' with elicitor properties can be used to activate the plant immune system. these defence-inducing molecules represent a powerful and often envir ...	2017	27085087
immune responses induced by oligogalacturonides are differentially affected by avrpto and loss of bak1/bkk1 and pepr1/pepr2.	plants possess an innate immune system capable of restricting invasion by most potential pathogens. at the cell surface, the recognition of microbe-associated molecular patterns (mamps) and/or damage-associated molecular patterns (damps) by pattern recognition receptors (prrs) represents the first event for the prompt mounting of an effective immune response. pathogens have evolved effectors that block mamp-triggered immunity. the pseudomonas syringae effector avrpto abolishes immunity triggered ...	2017	27118426
induced systemic resistance against botrytis cinerea by bacillus cereus ar156 through a ja/et- and npr1-dependent signaling pathway and activates pamp-triggered immunity in arabidopsis.	induced resistance response is a potent and cost effective plant defense against pathogen attack. the effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of the suppressive ability by bacillus cereus ar156 to pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato dc3000 (pst dc3000) in arabidopsis has been investigated previously; however, the strength of induced systemic resistance (isr) activity against botrytis cinerea remains unknown. here, we show that root-drench application of ar156 significantly reduces disease incidence ...	2017	28293243
microbial interactions in the phyllosphere increase plant performance under herbivore biotic stress.	the phyllosphere supports a tremendous diversity of microbes and other organisms. however, little is known about the colonization and survival of pathogenic and beneficial bacteria alone or together in the phyllosphere across the whole plant life-cycle under herbivory, which hinders our ability to understand the role of phyllosphere bacteria on plant performance. we addressed these questions in experiments using four genetically and biogeographically diverse accessions of arabidopsis thaliana, t ...	2017	28163703
a highly active endo-levanase bt1760 of a dominant mammalian gut commensal bacteroides thetaiotaomicron cleaves not only various bacterial levans, but also levan of timothy grass.	bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, an abundant commensal of the human gut, degrades numerous complex carbohydrates. recently, it was reported to grow on a β-2,6-linked polyfructan levan produced by zymomonas mobilis degrading the polymer into fructooligosaccharides (fos) with a cell surface bound endo-levanase bt1760. the fos are consumed by b. thetaiotaomicron, but also by other gut bacteria, including health-promoting bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. here we characterize biochemical properties of b ...	2017	28103254
biofilm formation and cellulose expression by bordetella avium 197n, the causative agent of bordetellosis in birds and an opportunistic respiratory pathogen in humans.	although bacterial cellulose synthase (bcs) operons are widespread within the proteobacteria phylum, subunits required for the partial-acetylation of the polymer appear to be restricted to a few γ-group soil, plant-associated and phytopathogenic pseudomonads, including pseudomonas fluorescens sbw25 and several pseudomonas syringae pathovars. however, a bcs operon with acetylation subunits has also been annotated in the unrelated β-group respiratory pathogen, bordetella avium 197n. our comparison ...	2017	28131895
ectopic expression of the wild grape wrky transcription factor vqwrky52 in arabidopsis thaliana enhances resistance to the biotrophic pathogen powdery mildew but not to the necrotrophic pathogen botrytis cinerea.	wrky transcription factors are known to play important roles in plant responses to biotic stresses. we previously showed that the expression of the wrky gene, vqwrky52, from chinese wild vitis quinquangularis was strongly induced 24 h post inoculation with powdery mildew. in this study, we analyzed the expression levels of vqwrky52 following treatment with the defense related hormones salicylic acid (sa) and methyl jasmonate, revealing that vqwrky52 was strongly induced by sa but not ja. we char ...	2017	28197166