 |
|
Thale cress goes on the defensive
May 15, 2007Thale cress has a complicated defence technique against insects and microorganisms that use the plant as a source of food. The plant hormone jasmonic acid plays a major role during the immune response against insects and pathogens. Dutch researcher Vivian van Oosten has demonstrated that this does not necessarily lead to the control of the same genes during the various interactions.
Van Oosten exposed thale cress to five different plant pests with various attack strategies: aphids, thrips, caterpillars, bacteria and fungi. The composition and quantity of the plant hormones jasmonic acid, ethylene, and salicylic acid that the plant produces as a response, was specific for each pest. Analysis of the activated genes made it clear that every hormone composition in the plant led to an extremely complex expression file.
Four pests mainly stimulated the production of the plant hormone jasmonic acid, which is involved in the regulation of the immune response to insects as well as some pathogens. Although the hormone produced was always the same, there was little overlap in the expression of the genes that are responsive to jasmonic acid. This revealed that the immune response of the plant to a certain pest was also influenced by other signals.
This was surprising, as other studies into various plant pests had shown that jasmonic acid played a key role in the immune response against insects and some plant pathogens. By studying the immune response of a large range of pests on a single plant species, it became clear that even the jasmonic acid dependent immune mechanism of thale cress is attacker-specific.
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
This was surprising, as other studies into various plant pests had shown that jasmonic acid played a key role in the immune response against insects and some plant pathogens. By studying the immune response of a large range of pests on a single plant species, it became clear that even the jasmonic acid dependent immune mechanism of thale cress is attacker-specific.
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
Thale Cress News and Current Thale Cress Events RSSHow to build a plant
Walking through a tropical or temperate forest immediately impresses us with the myriad forms and soaring structures of the plant world, but our knowledge of how plants are actually built, cell by cell, is still incomplete.
Breakthrough in plant research
The research groups of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences of the University of Helsinki and the University of California in San Diego have discovered a gene that is centrally involved in the regulation of carbon dioxide uptake for photosynthesis and water evaporation in plants.
Auto immune response creates barrier to fertility; could be a step in speciation
Plant biologists at the Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that an autoimmune response, triggered by a small number of genes, can be a barrier to producing a viable offspring.
How nature tinkers with the cellular clock
The life of a cell is all about growing and dividing at the right time. That is why the cell cycle is one of the most tightly regulated cellular processes.
Why does an anti-anthrax drug kill plants too?
Scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC), Norwich (1) have today reported that a very successful antibiotic, which is harmless to humans but lethal to most bacteria, also kills plants. They have found that an enzyme, which is an important target for several families of antibiotics and was thought to exist only in bacteria, is also present in plants. The discovery sheds further light on plant evolution and highlights a potential area for development of new herbicides, while it has no significance with regard to the medical use and efficacy of the antibiotic. The discovery is reported online and in the latest volume of the international scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy o
How plants remember winter, in order to flower in spring
Scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC) Norwich (1), have discovered the molecular change that allows plants to remember winter. Many plants need a cold period (3-8 weeks at 4o - 8oC) early in their growth to stimulate them to flower, this is called vernalisation, and without a suitable cold treatment flowering is delayed. JIC scientists have identified many of the genes involved in this process but their latest discovery is a chemical modification that occurs on one of these genes, which locks it in an 'off' state after exposure to cold. Thus the plant 'remembers' throughout its life that it has been exposed to a period of cold temperature early in its growth. This helps the plant to avo
Genes of autumn leaves mapped
It is not known what genes turn leaves yellow in the fall. However, scientists at Ume'å Plant Science Center, Ume'å University, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (KTH) have managed to identify more than 2,400 genes that take part in the process. One of the most magnificent pageants of nature every year is when trees take on their autumn colors. Scientists have long known that these colors appear when the green pigment chlorophyll is broken down at the same time as the yellow carotenoids remain and red antocyanines are formed. This process is steered, like all others in a living organism, by genes. Certain genes see to it that the process starts at the right time,
Researchers eavesdrop on the internal communication system plants use to warn they are under attack.
An international team of scientists have today reported the discovery of a protein, called DIR1, that is a key step in the pathways that enable plants to protect themselves against disease. DIR1 is involved in the transmission of a warning signal from plant cells infected by disease. The signal alerts cells, in areas remote from the infected site, that the plant is under attack and switches on defence mechanisms that prevent the disease establishing further infection sites. The report, from scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC) Norwich[1], University of Edinburgh [2] University of Toronto[3] and The Noble Foundation[4], appears in the international journal Nature. "As part of their d
Nature press release for 19 September issue
[1] PHYSICS: CERN MAKES ENOUGH ANTIHYDROGEN TO TEST THEORY (DOI: 10.1038/nature01096) ***This paper will be published electronically on Nature`s website on 18 September at 1900 London time / 1400 US Eastern time (which is also when the embargo lifts) as part of the AOP (ahead of print) programme. Although we have included it on this release to avoid multiple mailings it will not appear in print in the September 19 issue, but at a later date.*** Physicists report in Nature online this week that they have made at least 50,000 atoms of antihydrogen, the antimatter counterpart of normal hydrogen atoms. This large quantity of the looking-glass substance should enable them to put to the test one
Nature press release for 5 September issue
[1] RELICS: THE PRODIGAL NEANDERTHAL (pp33-34) The beautifully preserved and extremely rare skeleton of a newborn Neanderthal, thought to have been lost to science for almost 90 years, has been rediscovered. The finding could lead to new insights into the evolution of human development as well as the relationship between us and our long-extinct cousins. The fossil - a baby Neanderthal just four months old when it died - is called `Le Moustier 2` after its discovery in 1914 near Le Moustier in the Dordogne, southwest France. After the fossil was originally described in 1921 it vanished, believed to have been taken to Paris. Then in 1996 the foss
More Thale Cress News Articles
| Petal power: new gene yields unique blossoms: the altered Ultrapetala gene gives these thale cress flowers almost twice as many petals as they would normally ... An article from: Agricultural Research by Marcia Wood This digital document is an article from Agricultural Research, published by U.S. Government Printing Office on May 1, 2003. The length of the article is 950 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation... |
| © 2008 BrightSurf.com |