Andrew Bent honored by Am. Phytopathological Society

Dr. Andrew F. Bent, a faculty member in the UW-Madison department of Plant Pathology, is the 2009 winner of the Noel Keen Award for Research Excellence in Molecular Plant Pathology from the American Phytopathological Society.

This award recognizes contributions to "the understanding of molecular aspects of host-pathogen interactions, plant pathogens or plant-associated microbes, or molecular biology of disease development or defense mechanisms."

Dr. Bent's current research is focused on:

• Leucine-rich repeat (LRR) structure/function, and plant detection of bacterial flagellin
• Study and manipulation of disease resistance in soybean
• Previously unidentified biochemical responses of plants to pathogen infection

Recent publications:

Adams-Phillips. L., J. Wan, X. Tan, F.M. Dunning, B.C. Meyers, R.W. Michelmore & A.F. Bent. 2008. Discovery of ADP-ribosylation and other plant defense pathway elements through expression profiling of four different Arabidopsis-Pseudomonas R/avr interactions. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 21(5): 646-657.

Bent, A. & D. Mackey. 2007. Elicitors, effectors and R genes: The new paradigm and a lifetime supply of questions. Annual Review of Phytopathology 45: 399-436.

Bent, A.F. 2006. Arabidopsis thaliana floral dip transformation method. In: Agrobacterium Protocols (K. Wang, Ed.). Totowa, NJ: Humana Press. Methods in Molecular Biology 343: 87-103.

Briggs, A.G., L.C. Adams-Phillips, A.F. Bent. 2009. Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation and host-pathogen interactions [Meeting abstract]. Phytopathology 99(6): S16.

Dunning, F.M., W. Sun, K.L. Jansen, L. Helft & A.F. Bent. 2007. Identification and mutational analysis of Arabidopsis FLS2 Leucine-Rich Repeat domain residues that contribute to flagellin perception. Plant Cell 19(10): 3297-3313.

Bent, A.F., T.K. Hoffman, J.S. Schmidt, G.L. Hartman, D.D. Hoffman, X. Ping & M.L. Tucker. 2006. Disease- and performance-related traits of ethylene-insensitive soybean. Crop Science 43: 893-901.

Genger, R.K., G.I. Jurkowski, J.M. McDowell, H. Lu, H.W. Jung, J.T. Greenberg and A.F. Bent. 2008. Signaling pathways that regulate the enhanced disease resistance of Arabidopsis "defense, no death" mutants. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 21(10): 1285-1296.

MacGuidwin, A.E., A.F. Bent, D.I. Rouse. 2006. Active learning in "Plants, Parasites, and People" [Meeting abstract]. Phytopathology 96(6): S159-S160.

Suarez-Rodriguez M.C., L. Adams-Phillips, Y. Liu, H. Wang, S.H. Su, P.J. Jester, S. Zhang, A.F. Bent & P.J. Krysan. 2007. MEKK1 is required for flg22-induced MPK4 activation in Arabidopsis plants. Plant Physiology 143(2): 661-669.

Sun, W., F.M. Dunning, C. Pfund, R. Weingarten & A.F. Bent. 2006. Within-species flagellin polymorphism in Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris and its impact on elicitation of Arabidopsis FLS2-dependent defenses. Plant Cell 18: 764-779.

Tan, X.P., B.C. Meyers, A. Kozik, M. Al West, M. Morgante, D.A. St. Clair, A.F. Bent, R.W. Michelmore. 2007. Global expression analysis of nucleotide binding site-leucine rich repeat-encoding and related genes in Arabidopsis. BMC Plant Biology 7(56).

Ant symbiosis and Biofuels

[Photo: B W Hoffman]

UW-Madison Communications recently covered a project of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center to sequence the genome of ants that break down and digest cellulose, along with their associated fungi and bacteria ("Sequencing effort to chart ants and their ecosystem").

Recent publications by this project's researchers include:

Adams, A.S., Currie, C.R., Cardozea, Y.J., Klepzig, K.D., & Raffa, K. 2009. Effects of symbiotic bacteria and tree chemistry on the growth and reproduction of bark beetle fungal symbionts. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 39(6): 1133–1147.

Caldera, E.J., Poulsen, M., Suen, G., & Currie, C.R. 2009. Insect symbioses: a case study of past, present, and future fungus-growing ant research. Environmental Entomology 38: 78-92.

Ivens, A.B.F.; Nash, D.R.; Poulsen, M.; Boomsma, J.J. 2009. Caste-specific symbiont policing by workers of Acromyrmex fungus-growing ants. Behavioral Ecology 20:2, 378-384.

Little, A.E.F & Currie, C.R. 2008. Black yeast symbionts compromise the efficiency of antibiotic defenses in fungus-growing ants. Ecology 89: 1216-1222.

Oh, D.C, Scott, J.J., Currie, C.R., & Clardy, J. 2009. Mycangimycin: a polyene peroxide from a symbiotic Streptomyces sp. Organic Letters 11: 633-636.

Oh, D.C., Poulsen, M., Currie, C.R., & Clardy, J. 2009. Dentigerumycin: the bacterially produced molecular mediator of a fungus-growing ant symbiosis. Nature Chemical Biology 5: 391-393.

Oh, D.C., Scott, J.J., Poulsen, M.Z., Currie, C.R., & Clardy, J. 2008. Discovery of new secondary metabolites mediating insect-microorganism symbioses. Planta Medica 74(9): 906.

Poulsen, M., Fernandez-Marin, H., Wcislo, W.T., Currie, C.R., & Boomsma, J.J. (in press). Ephemeral windows of opportunity maintain horizontal transmission of fungal symbionts in leaf-cutting ants. Evolution.

Poulsen, M. & Currie, C.R. 2009. On ants, plants and fungi. New Phytologist 182(4): 785-788.

Scott, J.J., Oh, D.C., Yuceer, M.C., Klepzig, K.D., Clardy, J., et al. 2008. Bacterial protection of beetle-fungus mutualism. Science 322: 63.

Citrus fruit pathogen genome sequenced

"Citrus greening" (also known as Huanglongbing, HLB, or yellow dragon disease) is a tree disease, caused by the bacteria Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus and Candidatus Liberibacter africanus. The bacterium is transmitted by psyllid insects.

Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus' genetic sequence has been saved to GenBank, an open access database sponsored by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Also of interest:

• Plant Pathology research guide
• "ARS scientists sequence citrus disease bacterium" (2/12/09)
  
• "Questions and answers: USDA’s federal order to prevent the spread of citrus greening and the Asian citrus psyllid" (July 2008)
• "Diversity of “Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus” based on the omp gene sequence" (2005)
  
• "Ecology of the insect vectors of citrus systemic diseases and their control in Taiwan" (1998)
• "Report of a mission to Malaysia and Thailand (June 28 - July 9, 1990) on citrus greening disease"
• "Virus diseases of citrus" (1989)
• "Psyllids of America North of Mexico : (Psyllidae: Homoptera)" (1943)

[Image by Steve Webel. Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/webel/76665500]

Bergey's manual of bacteriology

Bergey’s manual of determinative bacteriology

• Use this to determine which species a bacterium is, based on its physical characteristics
• Google Books - selected pages of current edition
  
• Steenbock Library (QR81 A5) - current edition in Reference (non-circulating), current & older editions on 3-hour Reserve, and older editions on 1st floor circulate
  
• Ebling Library (QW15 B4962m) - current edition in Reference, and older editions circulate
  
• Plant Pathology Library (QR81 A5) - current edition in Reference, and older editions circulate
  

Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology
Volume 1: The archaea and the deeply branching and phototrophic bacteria
Volume 2: The proteobacteria
Volume 3: The firmicutes (new edition coming soon)
Volume 4: The bacteroidetes, planctomycetes, chlamydiae, spirochaetes, fibrobacteres, fusobacteria, acidobacteria, verrucomicrobia, dictyoglomi and gemmatimonadetes (new edition coming soon)
Volume 5: The actinobacteria (new edition coming soon)

• Use this if you already know genus and species
• Current vol. 2 = Online e-book
• Steenbock Library (QR81 B46) - current edition in Reference, current & older editions on 3-hour Reserve, and older editions on 1st floor circulate
  
• Ebling Library (QW4 B496m) - older editions circulate
  
• Plant Pathology Library (QR81 B46) - older editions in Reference
  
• Primate Center Library (QW4 B496) - older editions circulate

Also of interest:

• Bergey's Manual Trust