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Introduction
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Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI) Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants
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- Researcher
Publications
Publications (57)
ABBA (Apple, Bee, Bacteria, Antagonists) onFire (Fire Blight) is a three-year internal consortium project at the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI), in which six JKI institutes are involved. In this project, an innovative treatment approach based on natural tailocin-producing bacteria is being investigated to combat the fire blight pathogen Erwinia amylov...
Thrips, insects from the order Thysanoptera, are often intercepted in consignments sent from third countries into the European Union. Rapid species identification is needed in order to quickly decide, whether phytosanitary measures are required or a pest risk analysis (PRA) has to be performed. Two applications of Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy...
The Oriental tea tortrix Homona magnanima Diakonoff, 1948
(Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) has been intercepted three times
in Germany on imported plants from Japan since 2023. The
moth was found on bonsai of Taxus sp., T. cuspidata and Pi-
nus thunbergii. The findings were diagnosed in a close coop-
eration between official laboratories in the federal s...
The dissemination of soil tares in the potato and sugar beet processing industry is one of the main paths for the spread of potato cyst nematodes (PCN), a severe quarantine pest. Efficient measures for the disinfestation of tare soil from PCN, but also from beet cyst nematodes (BCN), are needed. In our study, Globodera pallida (a PCN) and Heteroder...
Root nodules of legume plants are primarily inhabited by rhizobial nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Here, we propose two new Rhizobiales species isolated from root nodules of common sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia), as shown by core-gene phylogeny, overall genome relatedness indices, and pan-genome ana lysis. Mesorhizobium onobrychidis sp. nov. actively i...
This mini-review aims at raising the interest in contractile phage tail-like particles (CPTPs) of bacteria as an efficient and pest-specific alternative to conventional chemical pesticides in agriculture, horticulture and forestry. CPTPs are used by various bacteria in diverse environments for interbacterial competition or for manipulation of eukar...
Root nodules of legume plants are primarily inhabited by rhizobial nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Here we propose two new Rhizobiales species isolated from root nodules of common sainfoin ( Onobrychis viciifolia ), as shown by core-gene phylogeny, overall genome relatedness indices and pan-genome analysis.
Mesorhizobium onobrychidis sp. nov., actively i...
Plant-beneficial microorganisms are gaining importance for sustainable plant production and phytosanitary practices. Yet there is a lack of computational approaches targeting bacterial traits associated with plant growth-promotion (PGP), which hinders the in-silico identification, comparison, and selection of phytostimulatory bacterial strains. To...
Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky 1853) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), the Asian Longhorned Beetle, is native to temperate and subtropical areas of China and the Korean peninsula. Due to its wide range of host plants, it is considered among the most economically important invasive plant pests. The morphological identification of A. glabripennis la...
Plant microbiota have co-evolved with their associated plants in the entire holobiont, and their assemblages support diversity and productivity on our planet. Of importance is in vitro cultivation and identification of their hub taxa for possible core microbiome modification. Recently, we introduced the in situ-similis culturing strategy, based on...
Plants are often challenged by multiple abiotic stresses simultaneously. The inoculation of beneficial bacteria is known to enhance plant growth under these stresses, such as phosphorus starvation or salt stress. Here, for the first time, we assessed the efficiency of selected beneficial bacterial strains in improving tomato plant growth to better...
Plants are often challenged by multiple abiotic stresses simultaneously. The inoculation
of beneficial bacteria is known to enhance plant growth under these stresses, such as phosphorus
starvation or salt stress. Here, for the first time, we assessed the efficiency of selected beneficial
bacterial strains in improving tomato plant growth to better...
In plant pest diagnosis, Sanger sequencing of marker genes (DNA-barcoding) is the most applied and appropriate method for the identification of insects. Standard PM7/129 of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO) includes a number of primers and PCR protocols for diagnosing insect pests. LCO1490 and HCO2198 primers recom...
Potato cyst nematodes, Globodera pallida and G. rostochien-sis, as well as Synchytrium endobioticum, causing potatoward disease, are severe pests of potato crops. Due to theirmassive yield impact, all three species are considered inva-sive and thus are listed as quarantine pests in Germany. Dis-semination of soil tares, which derive from the indust...
Non-invasive diagnosis of harmful wood-inhabiting organisms
is of great importance in order to minimize interventions in valuable wood products and living trees. Here we present two methods, an acoustical and a molecular one, which enable gentle detection of insect larvae in wood and wood products. In parts, both methods have
been successfully appl...
Salinity and phosphorus (P) deficiency are among the most serious soil factors constraining crop productivity. A proposed strategy for alleviating these stresses is supporting plants by inoculation with growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Here, a comparison of the ability of two maize composite and two F1 hybrid varieties to tolerate a P deficie...
Kosakonia radicincitans is a species within the new genus Kosakonia. Many strains of this genus have been isolated from plants, but some strains are assumed to act as facultative human pathogens. In this study, an in-depth analysis of a Kosakonia isolate from human blood was performed. The strain was originally isolated from blood and identified as...
Improving cultivability of a wider range of bacterial and archaeal community members, living natively in natural environments and within plants, is a prerequisite to better understanding plant-microbiota interactions and their functions in such very complex systems. Sequencing, assembling, and annotation of pure microbial strain genomes provide hig...
Type VI secretion systems and tailocins, two bacterial phage tail-like particles, have been reported to foster interbacterial competition. Both nanostructures enable their producer to kill other bacteria competing for the same ecological niche. Previously, type VI secretion systems and particularly R-type tailocins were considered highly specific,...
Gram-negative bacterial endophytes have attracted research interest caused by their advantageous over epiphytic bacteria in plant nutrition and protection. However, research on these typically Gram-negative endophytes has deficiencies concerning the role of cultivation and pre-formulation strategies on further plant colonisation capabilities. Besid...
Natural hosts for the fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae include Festuca rubra (fine fescue) and Festuca trachyphylla (hard fescue). Some strains also form stable associations with Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass). L. perenne is a suitable host to study fungal endophyte-grass interactions, such as endophytic fungal growth within the plant and ep...
The recent worldwide discovery of plant growth-promoting (PGP) Kosakonia radicincitans in a large variety of crop plants suggests that this species confers significant influence on plants, both in terms of yield increase and product quality improvement. We provide a comparative genome analysis which helps to unravel the genetic basis for K. radicin...
The global market for biosupplements is expected to grow by 14 percent between 2014 and 2019 as a consequence of the proven benefits of biosupplements on crop yields, soil fertility, and fertilizer efficiency. One important segment of biosupplements is plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB). Although many potential PGPB have been discovered, suitab...
Fungi and bacteria are found living together in a wide variety of environments. Their interactions are significant drivers of many ecosystem functions and are important for the health of plants and animals. A large number of fungal and bacterial families are engaged in complex interactions that lead to critical behavioural shifts of the microorgani...
Aims
Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) affect host physiological processes in various ways. This study aims at elucidating the dependence of bacterial-induced growth promotion on the plant genotype and characterizing plant metabolic adaptations to PGPB.
Methods
Eighteen Arabidopsis thaliana accessions were inoculated with the PGPB strain Kosa...
Aim Despite an improved understanding of Southern Hemisphere plant biogeography, the origins and evolution of sub-Antarctic island floras remain poorly studied. Here we investigate the historical biogeography of sub-Antarctic island representatives of the genus Ranunculus. We aimed to establish when and from where these ranunculi originated as well...
Fig. S1 Growth of E. festucae wild‐type around the shoot apical meristem, in the leaf blade expansion zone of L. perenne, on the leaf surface and between epidermis and mesophyll.
Fig. S2
E. festucae wild‐type culture phenotype on PD agar.
Fig. S3 Epiphyllous growth of wild‐type E. festucae hyphae on L. perenne leaf sheath.
Fig. S4 Deletion of E...
Movie S1 Movie capturing images taken in the z plane of epiphyllous hyphae and expressorium of wild‐type E. festucae in symbiosis with L. perenne presented in Fig. 2(c).
Movie S2 Movie capturing images taken in the z plane of an expressorium of wild‐type E. festucae in symbiosis with L. perenne penetrating the host cuticle.
Movie S3 Movie capturing images taken in the z plane of epiphyllous hyphae and expressorium of wild‐type E. festucae in symbiosis with L. perenne.
Movie S4 Movie capturing images taken in the z plane of epiphyllous hyphae and expressorium of wild‐type E. festucae in symbiosis with L. perenne presented in Fig. 4(b).
Epichloë festucae forms a mutualistic symbiotic association with Lolium perenne. This biotrophic fungus systemically colonizes the intercellular spaces of aerial tissues to form an endophytic hyphal network. E. festucae also grows as an epiphyte, but the mechanism for leaf surface colonization is not known. Here we identify an appressorium‐like str...
Trichomes are important regulators of leaf radiation absorptance and thus modulate the carbon, water and energy balance of pubescent plants. This study assessed leaf hair characteristics and leaf optical properties of four species of alpine Pachycladon (Brassicaceae). Two of the pubescent Pachycladon species exhibited different trichome morphologic...
Early evolutionary thinkers proposed relatively simple models to describe processes of evolution, and these are the basis of evolutionary models still used today. Recent research has since shown that evolutionary relationships among plants can be complex and difficult to reconstruct even from molecular data. In plants there is a continuum of proces...
Epichloё festucae is a mutualistic symbiont that systemically colonises the intercellular spaces of Lolium perenne leaves to form a highly structured and interconnected hyphal network. In an Agrobacterium tumefaciens T-DNA forward genetic screen we identified a mutant TM1066 that had a severe host interaction phenotype, causing stunting and prematu...
Predicting survival and extinction scenarios for climate change requires an understanding of the present day ecological characteristics of species and future available habitats, but also the adaptive potential of species to cope with environmental change. Hybridization is one mechanism that could facilitate this. Here we report statistical evidence...
Transcriptome analysis is increasingly being used to study the evolutionary origins and ecology of non-model plants. One issue for both transcriptome assembly and differential gene expression analyses is the common occurrence in plants of hybridisation and whole genome duplication (WGD) and hybridization resulting in allopolyploidy. The divergence...
Figure S1. Number of complete transcripts identified in different assemblies of P. cheesemanii reads. 380 different assemblies were conducted using ABySS [25,26] and a combination of i) coverage cutoffs between 2 and 20 and II) k-mer sizes between 25 and 63. Transcripts covering the complete coding sequence of the homologue from A. lyrata or A. tha...
Table S1. Number and length of contigs per k-mer size and coverage cutoff for P. fastigiatum and P. cheesemanii. The number of sequences obtained per coverage cutoff were counted and divided into four size classes: a) Sequences that were longer than 1000 bp, b) sequences shorter than 1000 bp but longer than 500 bp, c) sequences shorter than 500 but...
Table S2. Statistics and longest sequences for 380 assemblies of the P. fastigiatum library. The longest sequence was identified in each of the 380 assemblies and annotated according to its homologue in A. thaliana. The N50 and N90 values for each assembly were computed as well.
Table S3. Coverage cutoff values for seven genes made from assemblies of reads which had up to three mismatches. All reads in the P. fastigiatum dataset mapping with up to three mismatches to the sequences of AT1G67090, AT3G14210, three sequences of AT1G54030 (two homeologues and one paralogue), ATCG00490, and AT1G75680 were determined and assemble...
Supplementary file S1: 3,912 complete annotated transcripts from the library of P. fastigiatum. Contigs from all 380 assemblies of the P. fastigiatum reads were searched against a combined library of A. lyrata and A. thaliana coding sequences using BLAT [47]. Transcripts that spanned more than 55% of a reference coding sequence were extracted and,...
Supplementary file S2: 2,442 complete annotated transcripts from the library of P. cheesemanii. Contigs from all 380 assemblies of the P. cheesemanii reads were searched against a combined library of A. lyrata and A. thaliana coding sequences using BLAT [47]. Transcripts that spanned more than 55% of a reference coding sequence were extracted and,...
Epichloë festucae and its asexual derivative Neotyphodium lolii are mutualistic symbionts that confer on their Festuca and Lolium grass hosts, protection from various biotic and abiotic stresses. The genetic tractability of E. festucae has led to its adoption as a model experimental system to study fungal–grass symbiotic interactions. Growth of E....
Botrytis cinerea, which causes gray-mold rot, attacks a wide range of plant species. To understand the infection process, the role of a putative transcriptional regulator, BcReg1 (regulator 1), in pathogenicity was studied. This transcriptional regulator shows similarity to the morphological switch regulators Candida albicans Wor1 and Histoplasma c...
Symbiotic associations between plants and fungi are a dominant feature of many terrestrial ecosystems, yet relatively little is known about the signaling, and associated transcriptome profiles, that define the symbiotic metabolic state. Using the Epichloë festucae-perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) association as a model symbiotic experimental sys...
This contribution deals with the taxonomy and phylogeny of the Pelargonium carnosum complex, a group of closely related taxa of Pelargonium L'Her. section Otidia (Sweet) DC. (Geraniaceae) that is distributed in the winter rainfall area of South Africa. According to molecular analyses via AFLP, P. adriaanii M.Becker & F.Albers, P. carnosum (L.) L'He...
Pelargonium adriaanii (Geraniaceae) from the coastal area of the Northern Province of South Africa is described as a species new to science. Its large rounded petals are unique in Pelargonium sect. Otidia as well as the combination of inflorescence, pedicel and hypanthium characters. An illustration of the new species and a distribution map are pro...
