Soils are facing new environmental stressors, such as titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂-NPs). While these emerging pollutants are increasingly released into most ecosystems, including agricultural fields, their potential impacts on soil and its function remain to be investigated. Here we report the response of the microbial community of an agricultural soil exposed over 90 days to TiO₂-NPs (1 and 500 mg kg^-1 dry soil).

Auxin-regulated transcription plays a role in almost every aspect of plant growth and development. Recent structural studies of domains from auxin-activated transcription factors and auxin-degraded repressors have raised fundamental questions about the protein complexes required for auxin response. Here, we leverage the power of a synthetic yeast system to identify and systematically characterize the simplest auxin response unit in the absence of the potentially confounding influence of other family members and interacting pathways.

Phosphorus (P), an essential macronutrient, is often limiting in soils and affects plant growth and development. In Arabidopsis thaliana, Low Phosphate Root1 (LPR1) and its close paralog LPR2 encode multicopper oxidases (MCOs). They regulate meristem responses of root system to phosphate (Pi) deficiency. However, the roles of LPR gene family in rice (Oryza sativa) in maintaining Pi homeostasis have not been elucidated as yet.

Endophytic bacterial communities play a key role in promoting plant growth and combating plant diseases. However, little is known about their population dynamics in plant tissues and bulk soil, especially in transgenic crops. This study investigated the colonization of transgenic maize harboring the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cry1Ah gene by Bacillus subtilis strain B916-gfp present in plant tissues and soil. Bt and nontransgenic maize were inoculated with B916-gfp by seed soaking, or root irrigation under both laboratory greenhouse and field conditions. During the growing season, B916-gfp colonized transgenic as well as nontransgenic plants by both inoculation methods.

Plant cell walls are important in plant development and for textiles, wood products, and bioenergy. Cellulose, the microfibrillar component of primary cell walls (PCWs) and secondary cell walls (SCWs), is formed by cellulose synthase complexes (CSCs) at the plasma membrane. Here, we show that CSCs behave differently during PCW and SCW synthesis and form microfibrils with different organization.

Cold stress is an influential environmental factor that affects plant distribution and can strongly limit crop productivity. Plants have evolved sophisticated signaling cascades that enable them to withstand chilling or even freezing temperatures. These cascades alter the biochemical composition of cells for protection from damage caused by low-temperature stress.

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.), a tropical spice crop of global acclaim, is susceptible to Phytophthora capsici, an oomycete pathogen which causes the highly destructive foot rot disease. A systematic understanding of this phytopathosystem has not been possible owing to lack of genome or proteome information. In this study, we explain an integrated transcriptome-assisted label-free quantitative proteomics pipeline to study the basal immune components of black pepper when challenged with P. capsici.

The objective of this study was to use next-generation sequencing technologies to dissect quantitative trait loci (QTL) for southern root-knot nematode (RKN) resistance into individual genes in soybean. Two hundred forty-six recombinant inbred lines (RIL) derived from a cross between Magellan (susceptible) and PI 438489B (resistant) were evaluated for RKN resistance in a greenhouse and sequenced at an average of 0.19× depth.

Breeding for salt tolerance is the most promising approach to enhance the productivity of saline prone areas. However, polygenic inheritance of salt tolerance in rice acts as a bottleneck in conventional breeding for salt tolerance. Hence, we set our goals to construct a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based molecular map employing high-throughput SNP marker technology and to investigate salinity tolerant QTLs with closest flanking markers using an elite rice background.

Lignocellulosic biomass is a potential major resource for renewable energy production. Plant cell-wall deconstruction, however, remains an inefficient process, mainly due to the recalcitrant nature of the lignin and cellulosic components, that requires chemical pretreatment methods prior to degradation. This study aims to overcome this barrier by combining two paradigms into a single system, by using a synthetic biology approach.