Many viruses, including those of global concern, are dependent on internalization for their entry. We found that ribonuclease kappa (RNASEK) is required for infection of every virus we tested that enters cells through an acid-dependent pathway, including dengue, West Nile, Sindbis, Rift Valley Fever, and influenza viruses. Mechanistically, we found that RNASEK has no effect on virus binding to cells but, rather, is required for their uptake.

Asexually propagated crops offer the advantage that all genetic effects can be exploited in farmers’ pro-duction fields. However, non-additive effects complicate selection because, while influencing the performance of the materials under evaluation, they cannot be transmit-ted efficiently to the following cycle of selection. Cassava can be used as a model crop for asexually propagated crops because of its diploid nature and the absence of (known) incompatibility effects.

Lignin is a biopolymer with various agro-industrial uses. However, lignin in cell walls impedes biofuel production from plant biomass. The phenylpropanoid pathway is responsible for lignin synthesis and other phenolic metabolites.One of the metabolites produced is 2-phenylethanol, a known fragrance chemical and an intermediate in lignin synthesis. Guang Qi, Chunxiang Fu and Gongke Zhou, all from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, conferred two 2-phenylethanol biosynthetic pathways of plants and Saccharomyces cerevisiae into Arabidopsis.

Plant pathogenic bacteria cause destructive diseases in many commercially important crops. Among these bacteria, eight pathogens, Ralstonia solanacearum, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, X. campestris pv. campestris, Erwinia amylovora, Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii, Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis, Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae, and Xylella fastidiosa,

A team of researchers from Canada and United Kingdom led by Dr. Jared Simpson conducted a study to examine the capability of Oxford Nanopore's MinION^TM as a sequencer device. The nanopore device is a tiny genome sequencer that has the ability to generate vast amounts of data and read long stretches of genome to allow reconstruction.

Huanglongbing (HLB) is a vector-transmitted bacterial infection of citrus trees that poses a major threat to the citrus industry in Florida, Texas, and California. Current control strategies that focus on the vector, the Asian citrus psyllid Diaphorina citri, are usually initiated when the trees become symptomatic, anywhere from 10 mo to several years after initial infection.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been characterized in mammals and are shown to play roles in physiological and pathological processes. Although MMPs in plant species have been identified, the function of MMPs in biotic stress responses remains elusive. Fengming Song of Zhejiang University in China identified five MMP genes in the tomato genome.

GRAS transcription factors are proteins that play diverse roles in plant development. However, the functions of some GRAS genes identified in rice are unknown, especially those related to rice drought resistance. Lijun Luo of the Huazhong Agricultural University in China isolated a novel GRAS transcription factor gene from rice, OsGRAS23.

High-throughput genotyping arrays provide a standardized resource for plant breeding communities that are useful for a breadth of applications including high-density genetic mapping, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), genomic selection (GS), complex trait dissection, and studying patterns of genomic diversity among cultivars and wild accessions. We have developed the CottonSNP63K, an Illumina Infinium array containing assays for 45,104 putative intraspecific single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for use within the cultivated cotton species Gossypium hirsutum L

Stalk rots are important biotic constraints to sorghum production worldwide. Several pathogens may be associated with the disease, but Macrophomina phaseolina and Fusarium thapsinum are recognized as the major causal organisms. The diseases become more aggressive when drought and high-temperature stress occur during grain filling. Progress in genetic improvement efforts has been slow due to lack of effective phenotyping protocol and the strong environmental effect on disease incidence and severity. Deployment of modern molecular tools is expected to accelerate efforts to develop resistant hybrids.