10 research outputs found
Plant-microbe interaction in Antarctica
Endophytes are microorganisms that dwell inside healthy plant tissues without causing
any detectable disease symptoms to the host. They are ubiquitously associated with almost all
plants and are able to improve plant ecology and ftness, conferring resistance to abiotic and
biotic stresses. Their ecological role becomes even more important when plants live in extreme
environmental conditions such as those of Antarctica. In recent years, many studies focused
on the analysis of soils and roots microbial communities associated to the Antarctic vascular
plants Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica, whereas less it is known about leafassociated
microorganisms.
In this work, we show a preliminary study on the disclosure of bacterial, fungal and viral
communities associated to C. quitensis leaves. A metatranscriptome analysis revealed the
presence of sequences belonging to plant (72%), fungi (23%), bacteria, viruses and algae (5%).
The ecological role of viruses was mainly addressed in order to deepen knowledge on the
tripartite plant-fungus-virus interaction. Culturable bacteria and fungi have been also isolated
and are currently under investigatio
The New Scope of Virus Taxonomy: Partitioning the Virosphere Into 15 Hierarchical Ranks
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