SUMMARY Progestogens and androgens are steroids found in a wide range of plants, but little is known about their physiological functions. In this study, we sowed seeds of angiosperms on progestogen‐ and androgen‐containing medium and analysed their morphological effects. We further investigated the effects…
During stress as plants cannot move, they have evolved signals at the cellular, transcriptomic or metabolic level to counteract or combat stress. Although there are many chemical methods to protect plants from stress, the use of beneficial microorganisms is an environmentally friendly approach. In this…
This thesis is about the characterisation of CRY-DASH1 and CRY-DASH2 - two cryptochromes of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. It contains findings about the intracellular localization of the proteins, their associations to membranes and their metabolic influences resulting in the discovered phenotypes of the…
This study focuses on the question how and where information acquired by FLS2 perception of flg22 is transformed into electrical signals crucial for generation of local and systemic defense responses. In Arabidopsis thaliana and Vicia faba leaves, FLS2 density was high in the epidermis and vascular parenchyma,…
Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2025
The degradation of cellulose generates cellooligomers, which function as damage-associated molecular patterns and activate immune and cell wall repair responses via the CELLOOLIGOMER RECEPTOR KINASE1 (CORK1). The most active cellooligomer for the induction of downstream responses is cellotriose, while…
Kenya is the seventh most prominent producer of common beans globally and the second leading producer in East Africa. However, the annual national productivity is low due to insufficient quantities of vital nutrients and nitrogen in the soils. Rhizobia are symbiotic bacteria that fix nitrogen through…
Although phloem-feeding insects such as aphids can cause significant damage to plants, relatively little is known about early plant defenses against these insects. As a first line of defense, legumes can stop the phloem mass flow through a conformational change in phloem proteins known as forisomes in…
A soil bacterium Pseudomonas protegens Pf-5 has antagonistic effects on the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. P. protegens triggers cytosolic Ca2+ elevations in C. reinhardtii by using a mixture of secondary metabolites. Their IC50 values causing immobilization of the algal cells are in accordance…
Rhizobia are soil bacteria that induce nodule formation on leguminous plants. In the nodules, they reduce dinitrogen to ammonium that can be utilized by plants. Besides nitrogen fixation, rhizobia have other symbiotic functions in plants including phosphorus and iron mobilization and protection of the…
Cell wall integrity (CWI) maintenance is central for plant cells. Mechanical and chemical distortions, pH changes, and breakdown products of cell wall polysaccharides activate plasma membrane-localized receptors and induce appropriate downstream responses. Microbial interactions alter or destroy the…
Grain legumes play a significant role in smallholder farming systems in Africa because of their contribution to nutrition and income security and their role in fixing nitrogen. Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF) serves a critical role in improving soil fertility for legumes. Although much research has…
Soils with low pH and high aluminium (Al) contamination restrict common bean production, mainly due to adverse effects on rhizobia. We isolated a novel rhizobium strain, B3, from Kenyan soil which is more tolerant to Al stress than the widely used commercial strain CIAT899. B3 was resistant to 50 µM…
Phytoplasmas are bacterial pathogens that live mainly in the phloem of their plant hosts. They dramatically manipulate plant development by secreting effector proteins that target developmental proteins of their hosts. Traditionally, the effects of individual effector proteins have been studied by ectopic…
Forisomes are giant fusiform protein complexes composed of sieve element occlusion (SEO) protein monomers, exclusively found in sieve elements (SEs) of legumes. Forisomes block the phloem mass flow by a Ca2+-induced conformational change (swelling and rounding). We studied the forisome reactivity in…