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Kinetic variation in grass phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylases provides opportunity to enhance C-4 photosynthetic efficiency

The high rates of photosynthesis and the carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM) in C-4 plants are initiated by the enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) carboxylase (PEPC). The flow of inorganic carbon into the CCM of C-4 plants is driven by PEPC’s affinity for bicarbonate (K-HCO3), which can be rate limiting when atmospheric CO2 availability is restricted due to low… [Read More]

A multi-omic characterization of temperature stress in a halotolerant Scenedesmus strain for algal biotechnology

Microalgae efficiently convert sunlight into lipids and carbohydrates, offering bio-based alternatives for energy and chemical production. Improving algal productivity and robustness against abiotic stress requires a systems level characterization enabled by functional genomics. Here, we characterize a halotolerant microalga Scenedesmus sp. NREL 46B-D3 demonstrating peak growth near 25 degrees C that reaches 30g/m(2)/day and the… [Read More]

Genome-scale phylogenetic analyses confirm Olpidium as the closest living zoosporic fungus to the non-flagellated, terrestrial fungi

The zoosporic obligate endoparasites, Olpidium, hold a pivotal position to the reconstruction of the flagellum loss in fungi, one of the key morphological transitions associated with the colonization of land by the early fungi. We generated genome and transcriptome data from non-axenic zoospores of Olpidium bornovanus and used a metagenome approach to extract phylogenetically informative… [Read More]

Microbial Community Field Surveys Reveal Abundant Pseudomonas Population in Sorghum Rhizosphere Composed of Many Closely Related Phylotypes

While the root-associated microbiome is typically less diverse than the surrounding soil due to both plant selection and microbial competition for plant derived resources, it typically retains considerable complexity, harboring many hundreds of distinct bacterial species. Here, we report a time-dependent deviation from this trend in the rhizospheres of field grown sorghum. In this study,… [Read More]

Revisiting a ‘simple’ fungal metabolic pathway reveals redundancy, complexity and diversity

Next to d-glucose, the pentoses l-arabinose and d-xylose are the main monosaccharide components of plant cell wall polysaccharides and are therefore of major importance in biotechnological applications that use plant biomass as a substrate. Pentose catabolism is one of the best-studied pathways of primary metabolism of Aspergillus niger, and an initial outline of this pathway… [Read More]

The leucine-rich repeats in allelic barley MLA immune receptors define specificity towards sequence-unrelated powdery mildew avirulence effectors with a predicted common RNase-like fold

Author summary Barley powdery mildew caused by the fungus Blumeria graminis forma specialis hordei (Bgh) can result in annual yield losses of 15% of this cereal crop. Bgh promotes virulence in plants through the secretion of diverse effector molecules, small proteins of which a subset enters into and modifies the immune status and physiology of… [Read More]

Changing expression patterns of TonB-dependent transporters suggest shifts in polysaccharide consumption over the course of a spring phytoplankton bloom

Algal blooms produce large quantities of organic matter that is subsequently remineralised by bacterial heterotrophs. Polysaccharide is a primary component of algal biomass. It has been hypothesised that individual bacterial heterotrophic niches during algal blooms are in part determined by the available polysaccharide substrates present. Measurement of the expression of TonB-dependent transporters, often specific for… [Read More]

Host population diversity as a driver of viral infection cycle in wild populations of green sulfur bacteria with long standing virus-host interactions

Temperate phages are viruses of bacteria that can establish two types of infection: a lysogenic infection in which the virus replicates with the host cell without producing virions, and a lytic infection where the host cell is eventually destroyed, and new virions are released. While both lytic and lysogenic infections are routinely observed in the… [Read More]

Pre-Cambrian roots of novel Antarctic cryptoendolithic bacterial lineages

Background: Cryptoendolithic communities are microbial ecosystems dwelling inside porous rocks that are able to persist at the edge of the biological potential for life in the ice-free areas of the Antarctic desert. These regions include the McMurdo Dry Valleys, often accounted as the closest terrestrial counterpart of the Martian environment and thought to be devoid… [Read More]