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Advances in Phytoplasma Research
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Advances in Phytoplasma Research

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Protection and Biotic Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 6894

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Marina Dermastia

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Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnology and Systems Biology, National Institute of Biology, Vecna pot 111, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: plant – microbe interactions; plant development; abscission; phytoplasmas; maize; grapevine; tomato
Prof. Dr. Martina Seruga Music

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Marulicev trg 9A, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: molecular plant pathology; microbial genomics; molecular epidemiology of plant microbes; pathogen-host interactions; phytoplasmas; genome instability; genome evolution

Special Issue Information

This Special Issue of Plants is dedicated to the International Year of Plant Health 2020, which was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2018.

Dear Colleagues,

Phytoplasmas are bacteria assigned to the class of Mollicutes that colonize and multiply in plant hosts and insect vectors. Although they are important plant pathogens and can have disastrous consequences for several crops under favorable conditions, phytoplasmas remain the most poorly characterized of the pathogens. However, in recent decades, the development of several new molecular biology approaches (e.g., high-throughput techniques) has allowed the acquisition of information that will gradually uncover the unique reductive evolution of the phytoplasma genome and the secret life of these plant pathogens.

Now, it is becoming evident that the pathogenicity of phytoplasmas involves a number of effector proteins, which have profound and diverse effects on several aspects of plant life. In plant cells, these effector proteins trigger physiological responses in the plant that result in symptom development. Such physiological conditions appear to be a consequence of the effects of the phytoplasmas on hormonal, nutritional, developmental, and stress signaling pathways and the interactions between these. These significant advances in our understanding of phytoplasma pathogenesis would not have been possible without previous studies of their diagnostic, biological, and molecular properties, their epidemiology, and the host–pathogen–insect interactions, as well as the management of phytoplasma-infected crops.

Despite this accumulating information, there are still many open questions and challenges in this fascinating field. Therefore, this Special Issue welcomes articles that focus on phytoplasma research (i.e., original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews, modeling approaches, and methods). These should include the phytoplasma biochemistry, physiology, genes, proteins, metabolites, and environment, along with phytoplasma–insect interactions at all levels, comprising the genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, plant microbiome, and whole plant studies, and field trials and model plants, as well as modeling across all of these levels.

Prof. Dr. Marina Dermastia
Prof. Dr. Martina Seruga Music
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • effector
  • genome
  • genome adaptation
  • interactions
  • metabolome
  • modelling
  • pathogen
  • phytoplasma
  • plant microbiome
  • proteome
  • transcriptome

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2911 KiB  
Article
New Cross-Talks between Pathways Involved in Grapevine Infection with ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ Revealed by Temporal Network Modelling
by Blaž Škrlj, Maruša Pompe Novak, Günter Brader, Barbara Anžič, Živa Ramšak, Kristina Gruden, Jan Kralj, Aleš Kladnik, Nada Lavrač, Thomas Roitsch and Marina Dermastia
Plants 2021, 10(4), 646; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10040646 - 29 Mar 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2209
Abstract
Understanding temporal biological phenomena is a challenging task that can be approached using network analysis. Here, we explored whether network reconstruction can be used to better understand the temporal dynamics of bois noir, which is associated with ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’, and is [...] Read more.
Understanding temporal biological phenomena is a challenging task that can be approached using network analysis. Here, we explored whether network reconstruction can be used to better understand the temporal dynamics of bois noir, which is associated with ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’, and is one of the most widespread phytoplasma diseases of grapevine in Europe. We proposed a methodology that explores the temporal network dynamics at the community level, i.e., densely connected subnetworks. The methodology offers both insights into the functional dynamics via enrichment analysis at the community level, and analyses of the community dissipation, as a measure that accounts for community degradation. We validated this methodology with cases on experimental temporal expression data of uninfected grapevines and grapevines infected with ‘Ca. P. solani’. These data confirm some known gene communities involved in this infection. They also reveal several new gene communities and their potential regulatory networks that have not been linked to ‘Ca. P. solani’ to date. To confirm the capabilities of the proposed method, selected predictions were empirically evaluated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Phytoplasma Research)
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15 pages, 1975 KiB  
Article
Competitive Exclusion of Flavescence dorée Phytoplasma Strains in Catharanthus roseus Plants
by Marika Rossi, Marta Vallino, Luciana Galetto and Cristina Marzachì
Plants 2020, 9(11), 1594; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9111594 - 17 Nov 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1940
Abstract
Flavescence dorée phytoplasmas (FDp, 16SrV-C and -D) are plant pathogenic non-cultivable bacteria associated with a severe grapevine disease. The incidence of the two reference strains on cultivated grapevines is unbalanced, and mixed infections are rare. To investigate the interaction between the two strains, [...] Read more.
Flavescence dorée phytoplasmas (FDp, 16SrV-C and -D) are plant pathogenic non-cultivable bacteria associated with a severe grapevine disease. The incidence of the two reference strains on cultivated grapevines is unbalanced, and mixed infections are rare. To investigate the interaction between the two strains, Catharanthus roseus plants were graft-infected with both strains, either simultaneously or sequentially. Different combinations of lateral and apical grafting were applied to avoid possible benefits due to graft position. The infection was monitored for four months through a new diagnostic protocol developed for differentiation and relative quantification of the two strains. Regardless of the temporal or spatial advantage at grafting, FD-C generally outcompeted FD-D. The prevalence of FD-C increased over time and, at the end of the experiment, FD-C was the unique strain detected in the aerial part and the roots of 74% and 90% of grafted plants, respectively. These data indicate that the interaction between the two strains results in competitive exclusion. Understanding the bases of the competition between FD-C and FD-D may contribute to explain the biology of the coexistence of different FDp strains under field conditions, aiming at identifying potential suppressor strains, which can provide alternative and environmentally sustainable solutions for FD control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Phytoplasma Research)
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15 pages, 2529 KiB  
Article
Effect of Daytime and Tree Canopy Height on Sampling of Cacopsylla melanoneura, a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’ Vector
by Dana Barthel, Christine Kerschbamer, Bernd Panassiti, Igor Malenovský and Katrin Janik
Plants 2020, 9(9), 1168; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9091168 - 09 Sep 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1816
Abstract
The psyllids Cacopsylla melanoneura and Cacopsylla picta reproduce on apple (Malus × domestica) and transmit the bacterium ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’, the causative agent of apple proliferation. Adult psyllids were collected by the beating-tray method from lower and upper parts of [...] Read more.
The psyllids Cacopsylla melanoneura and Cacopsylla picta reproduce on apple (Malus × domestica) and transmit the bacterium ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’, the causative agent of apple proliferation. Adult psyllids were collected by the beating-tray method from lower and upper parts of the apple tree canopy in the morning and in the afternoon. There was a trend of catching more emigrant adults of C.melanoneura in the morning and in the lower part of the canopy. For C.melanoneura remigrants, no differences were observed. The findings regarding the distribution of adults were reflected by the number of nymphs collected by wash-down sampling. The density of C.picta was too low for a statistical analysis. The vector monitoring and how it is commonly performed, is suitable for estimating densities of C.melanoneura. Nevertheless, above a certain temperature threshold, prediction of C.melanoneura density might be skewed. No evidence was found that other relatively abundant psyllid species in the orchard, viz. Baeopelma colorata, Cacopsylla breviantennata, Cacopsylla brunneipennis, Cacopsylla pruni and Trioza urticae, were involved in ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’ transmission. The results of our study contribute to an advanced understanding of insect vector behavior and thus have a practical impact for an improved field monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Phytoplasma Research)
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