We finished 2022 with the publication of two new preprints, covering our Covid-19 pandemic-lockdown work.
PREPRINT #1:
First, we published our GreenGate vector set with 75 promoters of the plant immune system:
“pGG-PIP: A GreenGate (GG) entry vector collection with Plant Immune system Promoters (PIP)”
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.20.521163v1
We hope that this resource will be helpful to the community.
For a thread covering the highlights of the preprints, please see these Twitter and Mastodon posts:
https://twitter.com/somssichm/status/1613089774709133312
https://sciencemastodon.com/@somssich/109678676936852228
PREPRINT #2:
Then, we added our work demonstrating the local responsiveness of phytohormone markers to colonization by F. oxysporum:
“Spatially distinct phytohormone responses of individual Arabidopsis thaliana root cells to infection and colonization by Fusarium oxysporum”
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.20.521292v1.full
This preprint hopefully is a helpful demonstration of our Spatial Immunity approach, aiming at mapping the immune responses of individual cells and groups of cells to colonization.
For a thread covering the highlights of the preprints, please see these Twitter and Mastodon posts:
https://twitter.com/somssichm/status/1613093591630643202
https://sciencemastodon.com/@somssich/109720768409255482
Any feedback to these two preprints is appreciated and welcome!
Our comprehensive overview article on the Arabidopsis thaliana – Fusarium oxysporum strain 5176 pathosystem is now published in the Journal of Experimental Botany:
https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erac263
We have compiled pretty much all the data available for this pathosystem. Here’s the index of what is covered:
- The role of phytohormones
- Salicylic acid
- Jasmonic acid
- Ethylene
- Abscisic acid
- Auxin
- The plant’s Fo5176 detection system
- WAKs and RFO1
- THE1, MIK2 and FER
- Cell wall biosynthesis
- Downstream of the detection system
- Oxidases and peroxidases
- Heterotrimeric G proteins and MLO proteins
- Transcriptional regulators
- microRNAs
- The role of fungal avirulence effectors
- Transcriptomic datasets
- MAMP vs. PAMP
- Conclusions and Outlook
We hope that this is useful to the community!
Here’s a new overview article I have written during the Omicron lockdown in January:
https://currentprotocols.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cpz1.417
I write about “The Dawn of Plant Molecular Biology”, and how the adoption of Arabidopsis thaliana as universal plant model, the development of plant transformation, and the description of the CaMV 35S promoter started a molecular biology revolution in the plant sciences.
After a world record 262 days in lockdown, we are finally allowed to work again.
Let’s see if it really is for good this time. I sure hope so.
With the government acknowledging that they won’t be able to get the current outbreak under control, we will remain in some form of lockdown until 85% of Victorians are vaccinated (~early December).
Not looking good.
Today we have reached 200 days of lockdown in Melbourne. And these 200 days are only the days of actual lockdown, meaning those of strict stay-at-home order. So it doesn’t count all the weeks of gradual return to campus which followed every one of the five lockdowns we’ve had, where we are only allowed to work 1, 2 or 3 days per week.
Also, the current sixth lockdown we are in, has been extended until at least September 2nd.
Last week we were finally back in the lab after lockdown 5, and could get our plants out and experiments going again.
Well, today we could throw them right in the bin again, as we have just entered lockdown number 6. Scheduled for 7 days for now.
Since Friday, July 16th, we are in our fifth lockdown, once again not able to work in the lab.
I really hope that this stops soon.
Hopefully we’ll be back on Wednesday, July 28th.
Marc was featured in the ‘Humans of BioSciences’ Series from the Faculty of Science. See the article here:
https://biosciences.unimelb.edu.au/news/dr-marc-somssich-humans-of-bioscience
We are finally back to regular working hours.