The epiphytic lichen Letharia vulpina has been commonly sampled in-situ for nitrogen (N) deposition biomonitoring studies but has never before been transplanted for this purpose. In the high-elevation wilderness areas of southern California Letharia vulpina is generally uncommon, making in-situ sampling difficult. In this study, we compared thallus N accumulation...
The role of small secreted peptides in plant defense responses to viruses has been seldom investigated. Here, we report a role for potato (Solanum tuberosum) PIP1, a gene predicted to encode a member of the PAMP-induced peptide (PIP) family, in the response of potato to potato virus Y infection (PVY)....
Biofortification of folates in staple crops is an important strategy to help eradicate human folate deficiencies. Folate biofortification using genetic engineering has shown great success in rice grain, tomato fruit, lettuce, and potato tuber. However, consumers’ skepticism, juridical hurdles, and lack of economic model have prevented the widespread adoption of...
The sweet potato is one of the world’s most widely consumed crops, yet its evolutionary history is poorly understood. In this paper, we present a comprehensive phylogenetic study of all species closely related to the sweet potato and address several questions pertaining to the sweet potato that remained unanswered. Our...
Phylogenetics benefits from using a large number of putatively independent nuclear loci and their combination with other sources of information, such as the plastid and mitochondrial genomes. To facilitate the selection of orthologous low‐copy nuclear (LCN) loci for phylogenetics in nonmodel organisms, we created an automated and interactive script to...
In the Pacific Northwestern United States, the hop powdery mildew fungus, Podosphaera macularis, survives overwintering periods in association with living host tissue because the ascigerious stage of the pathogen is not known to occur in this region. Field experiments were conducted over a 5-year period to describe the overwintering process...
Shrubs, bunchgrasses and biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are believed to contribute to site resistance to plant invasions in the presence of cattle grazing. Although fire is a concomitant disturbance with grazing, little is known regarding their combined impacts on invasion resistance. We are the first to date to test the...
A new species belonging to the lichen genus Physconia is described from Alaska and the Canadian and American Rocky Mountains and adjacent forested regions. It is also reported from China, Nepal, India and Siberia. The new species, Physconia labrata, is superficially similar to P. perisidiosa, but can be distinguished by...
Thiamine diphosphate (vitamin B1) plays a fundamental role as an enzymatic cofactor in universal metabolic pathways including glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. In addition, thiamine diphosphate has recently been shown to have functions other than as a cofactor in response to abiotic and biotic stress...
Thiamine pyrophosphate (vitamin B1) is an essential nutrient in the human diet, and is often referred as the energy vitamin. Potato contains modest amounts of thiamine. However, the genetic variation of thiamine concentrations in potato has never been investigated. In this study, we determined thiamine concentrations in freshly-harvested unpeeled tubers...
Biofortification of staple crops like potato via breeding is an attractive strategy to reduce human micronutrient deficiencies. A prerequisite is metabolic phenotyping of genetically diverse material which can potentially be used as parents in breeding programs. Thus, the natural genetic diversity of thiamine and folate contents was investigated in indigenous...
Malnutrition is one of the world’s largest health concerns. Folate (a.k.a. vitamin B9) is essential in the human diet and without adequate folate intake several serious health concerns such as congenital birth defects and an increased risk of stroke and heart disease can occur. Most people’s folate intake remains sub-optimal...
Background
Potato Virus Y (PVY) is one of the most important plant viruses affecting potato production. The interactions between potato and PVY are complex and the outcome of the interactions depends on the potato genotype, the PVY strain, and the environmental conditions. A potato cultivar can induce resistance to a...
Thiamin is an essential nutrient in the human diet. Severe thiamin deficiency leads to beriberi, a lethal disease which is common in developing countries. Thiamin biofortification of staple food crops is a possible strategy to alleviate thiamin deficiency-related diseases. In plants, thiamin plays a role in the response to abiotic...
Thiamin diphosphate (ThDP), also known as vitamin B1, serves as an enzymatic cofactor in glucose metabolism, the Krebs cycle, and branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis in all living organisms. Unlike plants and microorganisms, humans are not able to synthesize ThDP de novo and must obtain it from their diet. Staple crops...
Thiamin is essential for human health. While plants are the ultimate source of thiamin in most human diets, staple foods like white rice have low thiamin content. Therefore, populations whose diets are mainly based on low-thiamin staple crops suffer from thiamin deficiency. Biofortification of rice grain by engineering the thiamin...
Potato virus Y (PVY) is a major potato pathogen affecting potato yields worldwide. Thiamin, a water-soluble B vitamin (vitamin B1) has been shown to boost the plant’s immunity, thereby increasing resistance against pathogens. In this study, we tested different concentrations of thiamin (1 mM, 10 mM, 50 mM, 100 mM)...
Micronutrient deficiency, also known as the hidden hunger, affects over two billion people worldwide. Potato is the third most consumed food crops in the world, and is therefore a fundamental element of food security for millions of people. Increasing the amount of micronutrients in food crop could help alleviate worldwide...
Micronutrient malnutrition, also known as the hidden hunger, affects over two billion people worldwide. Potato is the third most consumed food crop in the world, and is therefore a fundamental element of food security for millions of people. Increasing the amount of micronutrients in potatoes could help alleviate worldwide micronutrient...
Explaining restoration failure can be as important as touting success. We used a series of studies to understand the failure of techniques commonly used to restore wetland prairies in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon. Burning, fallowing, and solarization (covering tilled plots with plastic sheeting to heat the soil) had...