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Research Articles (Microbiology and Plant Pathology): Recent submissions

  • Organize, don’t agonize : strategic success of Phytophthora species 
    Chepsergon, Jane; Motaung, Thabiso Eric; Bellieny-Rabelo, Daniel; Moleleki, Lucy Novungayo (MDPI, 2020-06-17)
    Plants are constantly challenged by various environmental stressors ranging from abiotic—sunlight, elevated temperatures, drought, and nutrient deficits, to biotic factors—microbial pathogens and insect pests. These not ...
  • The Litsea genome and the evolution of the laurel family 
    Chen, Yi-Cun; Li, Zhen; Zhao, Yun-Xiao; Gao, Ming; Wang, Jie-Yu; Liu, Ke-Wei; Wang, Xue; Wu, Li-Wen; Jiao, Yu-Lian; Xu, Zi-Long; He, Wen-Guang; Zhang, Qi-Yan; Liang, Chieh-Kai; Hsiao, Yu-Yun; Zhang, Di-Yang; Lan, Si-Ren; Huang, Laiqiang; Xu, Wei; Tsai, Wen-Chieh; Liu, Zhong-Jian; Van de Peer, Yves; Wang, Yang-Dong (Nature Publishing Group, 2020-04-03)
    The laurel family within the Magnoliids has attracted attentions owing to its scents, variable inflorescences, and controversial phylogenetic position. Here, we present a chromosomelevel assembly of the Litsea cubeba ...
  • Pathologists and entomologists must join forces against forest pest and pathogen invasions 
    Jactel, Herve; Desprez-Loustau, Marie-Laure; Battisti, Andrea; Brockerhoff, Eckehard; Santini, Alberto; Stenlid, Jan; Bjorkman, Christer; Branco, Manuela; Dehnen-Schmutz, Katharina; Douma, Jacob C.; Drakulic, Jassy; Drizou, Fryni; Eschen, Rene; Franco, Jose Carlos; Gossner, Martin M.; Green, Samantha; Kenis, Marc; Klapwijk, Maartje J.; Liebhold, Andrew M.; Orazio, Christophe; Prospero, Simone; Robinet, Christelle; Schroeder, Martin; Slippers, Bernard; Stoev, Pavel; Sun, Jianghua; Van den Dool, Robbert; Wingfield, Michael J.; Zalucki, Myron P. (Pensoft Publishers, 2020-07-10)
    The world’s forests have never been more threatened by invasions of exotic pests and pathogens, whose causes and impacts are reinforced by global change. However, forest entomologists and pathologists have, for too long, ...
  • Genomes of early-diverging streptophyte algae shed light on plant terrestrialization 
    Wang, Sibo; Li, Linzhou; Li, Haoyuan; Sahu, Sunil Kumar; Wang, Hongli; Xu, Yan; Xian, Wenfei; Song, Bo; Liang, Hongping; Cheng, Shifeng; Chang, Yue; Song, Yue; Cebi, Zehra; Wittek, Sebastian; Reder, Tanja; Peterson, Morten; Yang, Huanming; Wang, Jian; Melkonian, Barbara; Van de Peer, Yves; Xu, Xun; Wong, Gane Ka-Shu; Melkonian, Michael; Liu, Huan; Liu, Xin (Nature Research, 2020-02)
    Mounting evidence suggests that terrestrialization of plants started in streptophyte green algae, favoured by their dual existence in freshwater and subaerial/terrestrial environments. Here, we present the genomes of ...
  • Botanical gardens as key resources and hazards for biosecurity 
    Wondafrash, Mesfin; Wingfield, Michael J.; Wilson, John R.U.; Hurley, Brett Phillip; Slippers, Bernard; Paap, Trudy (Springer, 2021-06)
    Biodiversity and economic losses resulting from invasive plant pests and pathogens are increasing globally. For these impacts and threats to be managed effectively, appropriate methods of surveillance, detection and ...
  • IMA Genome-F13 : draft genome sequences of Ambrosiella cleistominuta, Cercospora brassicicola, C. citrullina, Physcia stellaris, and Teratosphaeria pseudoeucalypti 
    Wilken, Pieter Markus; Aylward, Janneke; Chand, Ramesh; Grewe, Felix; Lane, Frances Alice; Sinha, Shagun; Ametrano, Claudio; Distefano, Isabel; Divakar, Pradeep K.; Duong, Tuan A.; Huhndorf, Sabine; Kharwar, Ravindra N.; Lumbsch, H. Thorsten; Navathe, Sudhir; Perez, Carlos A.; Ramirez-Berrutti, Nazaret; Sharma, Rohit; Sun, Yukun; Wingfield, Brenda D.; Wingfield, Michael J. (BioMed Central, 2020-09)
    Draft genomes of the fungal species Ambrosiella cleistominuta, Cercospora brassicicola, C. citrullina, Physcia stellaris, and Teratosphaeria pseudoeucalypti are presented. Physcia stellaris is an important lichen forming ...
  • Polyploidy breaks speciation barriers in Australian burrowing frogs Neobatrachus 
    Novikova, Polina Yu.; Brennan, Ian G.; Booker, William; Mahony, Michael; Doughty, Paul; Lemmon, Alan R.; Lemmon, Emily Moriarty; Roberts, J. Dale; Yant, Levi; Van de Peer, Yves; Keogh, J. Scott; Donnellan, Stephen C. (Public Library of Science, 2020-05-11)
    Polyploidy has played an important role in evolution across the tree of life but it is still unclear how polyploid lineages may persist after their initial formation. While both common and wellstudied in plants, polyploidy ...
  • Economic and feasibility comparison of the dRIT and DFA for decentralized rabies diagnosis in resource-limited settings : the use of Nigerian dog meat markets as a case study 
    Ukamaka, Eze U.; Coetzer, Andre; Scott, Terence Peter; Anene, Boniface M.; Ezeokonkwo, Romanus C.; Nwosuh, Chika I.; Nel, Louis Hendrik; Sabeta, Claude Taurai (Public Library of Science, 2020-02-28)
    BACKGROUND : Rabies lyssavirus (RABV) is the aetiologic agent of rabies, a disease that is severely underreported in Nigeria as well as elsewhere in Africa and Asia. Despite the role that rabies diagnosis plays towards ...
  • Microbial removal of Pb(II) using an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor 
    Chimhundi, Jeremiah; Horstmann, Carla; Chirwa, Evans M.N.; Brink, Hendrik Gideon (MDPI, 2021-04)
    Please read abstract in the article.
  • Genetic diversity, relatedness and inbreeding of ranched and fragmented Cape buffalo populations in southern Africa 
    De Jager, G.J. (Deon); Harper, Cindy Kim; Bloomer, Paulette (Public Library of Science, 2020-08-14)
    Wildlife ranching, although not considered a conventional conservation system, provides a sustainable model for wildlife utilization and could be a source of valuable genetic material. However, increased fragmentation ...
  • Harnessing the potential of precision pest management in plantation forests 
    Slippers, Bernard; Hurley, Brett Phillip; Allison, Jeremy D. (NISC (Pty) Ltd and Informa UK Limited (trading as Taylor and Francis Group), 2020)
    There are numerous new and emerging technologies that allow for greater precision in forest pest management, from sequencing and chemical analyses to data collection through smart technologies, and integration, analysis ...
  • Pheromones as management tools for non-Scolytinae Curculionidae : development and implementation considerations 
    Scheepers, Luki-Marie; Allison, Jeremy D.; Bouwer, Marc Clement; Rohwer, Egmont Richard; Slippers, Bernard (NISC (Pty) Ltd and Informa UK Limited (trading as Taylor and Francis Group), 2020)
    For the large family Curculionidae, the number of species considered pests is expected to increase due to global movement of plant and soil material, as well as climate change. Pheromones are increasingly popular for use ...
  • Epitypification of Ceratocystis fimbriata 
    Marincowitz, Seonju; Barnes, Irene; De Beer, Z. Wilhelm; Wingfield, Michael J. (Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, 2020-12)
    Ceratocystis accommodates many important pathogens of agricultural crops and woody plants. Ceratocystis fimbriata, the type species of the genus is based on a type that is unsuitable for a precise application and ...
  • A new species of Raffaelea from beetle-infested Leucaena leucocephala 
    Procter, M.; Nel, Wilma Janine; Marincowitz, Seonju; Crous, Pedro W.; Wingfield, Michael J. (Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, 2020)
    Species of Raffaelea (Ophiostomatales: Ascomycota) are obligate symbionts of ambrosia beetles, some of which pose a substantial threat to forest trees. Leucaena leucocephala is a small mimosoid tree species that is ...
  • Genetic basis of antigenic variation of SAT3 foot-and-mouth disease viruses in Southern Africa 
    Maake, Lorens; Harvey, William T.; Rotherham, Lia; Opperman, Pamela Anne; Theron, Jacques; Reeve, Richard; Maree, Francois Frederick (Frontiers Media, 2020-09)
    Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) continues to be a major burden for livestock owners in endemic countries and a continuous threat to FMD-free countries. The epidemiology and control of FMD in Africa is complicated by the ...
  • Virus-host coexistence in phytoplankton through the genomic lens 
    Yau, Sheree; Krasovec, Marc; Benites, L. Felipe; Rombauts, Stephane; Groussin, Mathieu; Vancaester, Emmelien; Aury, Jean-Marc; Derelle, Evelyne; Desdevises, Yves; Escande, Marie-Line; Van de Peer, Yves; Vandepoele, Klaas; Gourbiere, Sebastien; Piganeau, Gwenael (American Association for the Advancement of Science:, 2020-04-01)
    Virus-microbe interactions in the ocean are commonly described by “boom and bust” dynamics, whereby a numerically dominant microorganism is lysed and replaced by a virus-resistant one. Here, we isolated a microalga strain ...
  • Islands in the sand : are all hypolithic microbial communities the same? 
    Lebre, Pedro H.; Bottos, Eric; Makhalanyane, Thulani Peter; Hogg, Ian D.; Cowan, Don A. (Oxford University Press, 2021-01)
    Hypolithic microbial communities (hypolithons) are complex assemblages of phototrophic and heterotrophic organisms associated with the ventral surfaces of translucent minerals embedded in soil surfaces. Past studies on the ...
  • Genetic diversity of ‘Candidatus Liberibacter africanus’ in South Africa based on microsatellite markers 
    Roberts, Ronel; Lin, Hong; Pietersen, Gerhard (Springer, 2021-02)
    Citrus Greening disease (CG) in South Africa (SA) is associated with the fastidious bacterium ‘Candidatus Liberibacter africanus’ (Laf). It has been observed that Laf isolates obtained from different geographic localities ...
  • The threat of the combined effect of biotic and abiotic stress factors in forestry under a changing climate 
    Teshome, Demissew Tesfaye; Zharare, Godfrey Elijah; Naidoo, Sanushka (Frontiers Media, 2020-11)
    Plants encounter several biotic and abiotic stresses, usually in combination. This results in major economic losses in agriculture and forestry every year. Climate change aggravates the adverse effects of combined stresses ...
  • Epigenetic inhibitors target multiple stages of Plasmodium falciparum parasites 
    Coetzee, Nanika; Von Gruning, Hilde; Opperman, Daniel; Van der Watt, Mariette Elizabeth; Reader, Janette; Birkholtz, Lyn-Marie (Nature Publishing Group, 2020-02-11)
    The epigenome of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is associated with regulation of various essential processes in the parasite including control of proliferation during asexual development as well as control ...