The desire to understand and control plant diseases has been a major drive to study host-microbe interactions. In addition to the molecular basis of diseases and disease resistance, another fundamental question is how plants manage to stay healthy and survive constant exposure to a wide range of microbes. The innate immune response is the first line of defense, and is likely critical for the su...

Trichoderma is a fungal genus of cosmopolitan distribution and high biotechnological value, with several species currently used as biological control agents. Additionally, the enzyme systems of the fungus are widely applied in industry. Species of Trichoderma protect plants against the attack of soil-borne plant pathogens by competing for nutrients and inhibiting or killing plant pathogenic fun...

The Toll/NF-kappaB pathway is a common, evolutionarily conserved innate immune pathway that modulates the responses of animal cells to microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). Because MAMPs have been implicated as critical elements in the signaling of symbiont-induced development, an expressed sequence tag library from the juvenile light organ of Euprymna scolopes was used to identify mem...

UNLABELLED The synergistic activity of Vibrio fischeri lipid A and the peptidoglycan monomer (tracheal cytotoxin [TCT]) induces apoptosis in the superficial cells of the juvenile Euprymna scolopes light organ during the onset of the squid-vibrio symbiosis. Once the association is established in the epithelium-lined crypts of the light organ, the host degrades the symbiont's constitutively produ...

A long-standing question in immunity is how the host detects pathogens. Since many microbes are also beneficial for the host, accurate discrimination between non-pathogens and pathogens is important. Traditionally, the microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) are thought to induce the innate immune response via the Toll-like receptor signaling. Since many patho-genic as well as nonpathogen...

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of various concentrations of Mg (0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 mM) in the nutrient solution and shading (0 and 50%) on growth, yield, fruit quality and physiological properties in hydroponically grown cucumber (Cucumis sativus L. cv. Nagen 792). With increased Mg concentration in both shaded and unshaded plants, the total plant leaf area and dry weight of...

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease predominantly mediated by T helper cells. While numerous adaptive immune mechanisms in AD pathophysiology have been elucidated in detail, deciphering the impact of innate immunity in AD pathogenesis has made substantial progress in recent years and is currently a fast evolving field. As innate and adaptive immunity are intimately lin...