The rice pathogenic fungus Fusarium fujikuroi is well known for the production of a broad spectrum of secondary metabolites (SMs) such as gibberellic acids (GAs), mycotoxins and pigments. The biosynthesis of most of these SMs strictly depends on nitrogen availability and of the activity of permeases of nitrogen sources, e.g. the ammonium and amino acid permeases. One of the three ammonium perme...

PURPOSE The expression of natriuretic peptides in the neural bundles of the anterior portion of the optic nerves and their functions in regulating vessel tone and blood flow may suggest a possible role in the pathogenesis of glaucoma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between normal-tension glaucoma and the genetic variations of atrial natriuretic peptide (Nppa) and n...

Phytohormone salicylic acid (SA) is a crucial component of plant-induced defense against biotrophic pathogens. Although the key players of the SA pathway are known, there are still gaps in the understanding of the molecular mechanism and the regulation of particular steps. In our previous research, we showed in Arabidopsis suspension cells that n-butanol, which specifically modulates phospholip...

Autophagy is a homeostatic degradation and recycling process that is also involved in defense against microbial pathogens and in certain forms of cellular suicide. Autophagy has been proposed to negatively regulate plant immunity-associated cell death related to the hypersensitive response (HR), as older autophagy-deficient mutants are unable to contain this type of cell death 5 to 10 d after i...

Salicylic acid (SA) is necessary for plant defence against some pathogens, whereas NPR1 is necessary for SA perception. Plant defence can be induced to an extreme by several applications of benzothiadiazole (BTH), an analogue of SA. Thus, plants that do not perceive BTH grow unaffected, whereas wild-type plants grow stunted. This feature allows us to screen for mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana t...

The plant hormones salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), and ethylene (ET) are major players in the regulation of signaling networks that are involved in induced defense responses against pathogens and insects. During the past two years, significant progress has been made in understanding the function of NON-EXPRESSOR OF PATHOGENESIS-RELATED GENES1 (NPR1), a key regulator of systemic acquire...

In dicotyledonous plants broad-spectrum resistance to pathogens is established after the induction of the systemic acquired resistance (SAR) response. In Arabidopsis the NPR1 protein can regulate SAR by interacting with members of the TGA class of basic, leucine-zipper transcription factors to alter pathogenesis-related (PR) gene expression. Overexpression of (At)NPR1 in Arabidopsis enhances re...

Citrus canker, caused by Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc), is one of the most destructive diseases of citrus. Progress of breeding citrus canker-resistant varieties is modest due to limited resistant germplasm resources and lack of candidate genes for genetic manipulation. The objective of this study is to establish a novel heterologous pathosystem between Xcc and the well-established model...

Efforts to elucidate the contributions by transcription factors to plant gene expression will require increasing knowledge of their specific in vivo regulatory associations. We are systematically investigating the role of individual TGA factors in the transcriptional control of pathogenesis-related (PR) defense genes, whose expression is stimulated in leaves by salicylic acid (SA) through a sti...