Published in Neuropraxis
Sociale interacties, de wijze waarop individuen met elkaar omgaan, zijn belangrijk voor mensen. Wie regelmatig sociale contacten heeft, is over het algemeen vaker gelukkiger dan iemand met weinig sociale interacties. Sociale terugtrekking blijkt zelfs een van de eerste symptomen van een groot scala aan hersenziekten, zoals depressie, autisme, schiz...
Vegetative propagation is very important for the survival of species with long juvenile and adult vegetative phases, as it is the case for bulbous plants. Bulbous plants are ornamental geophytes with a bulb as an underground storage organ. Among flower bulbs, tulip and lily are the two commercially leading plants in The Netherlands. Tulip propagate...
Plant-pathogenic microbes secrete effector molecules to establish disease on their hosts, whereas plants in turn employ immune receptors to try and intercept such effectors in order to prevent pathogen colonization. Based on structure and subcellular location, immune receptors fall into two major classes; cell surface-localized receptors that compr...
As a consequence of a sessile lifestyle, plants are constantly facing a fluctuating environment. In order to both profit maximally and protect themselves from these environmental cues, plants evolved ways to sense and respond to signals. Ambient temperature is one of the cues for which plants have acquired a strategy to enhance their chance of surv...
Nitrogen is a key element for plant growth. To meet nitrogen demands, some plants establish an endosymbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing rhizobium or Frankia bacteria. This involves formation of specialized root lateral organs, named nodules. These nodules are colonized intracellularly, which creates optimal physiological conditions for the f...
Rice is the most important food crop in the world, feeding over half the world’s population. However, rice water use efficiency, defined by units of yield produced per unit of water used, is the lowest of all crops. The aim of this thesis was to study the effect of plant hormones and the root microbiome on drought tolerance in rice. The new plant h...
Potato is affected by several diseases. Although, resistance can be obtained by introgression of major resistance genes from wild species, this has rarely been durable. Hence, other sources of resistance are highly needed. New research with a focus on loss of function mutations has led to the identification of disease susceptibility (S) genes in pl...
Powdery mildew (PM) is a major fungal disease that threatens thousands of plant species. PM is caused by Podosphaera leucotricha in apple and Erysiphe necator in grapevine. Powdery mildew is controlled by frequent applications of fungicides, having negative effects on the environment, and leading to additional costs for growers. To reduce the amoun...
Noccaea caerulescens is the only known Zn/Cd/Ni hyperaccumulator. The Ganges accession (2n = 14) has an, yet unpublished, genome size of ~319 Mb, with 29,712 predicted genes representing 15,874 gene families. This species is distributed mainly in Europe. Three ecotypes can be distinguished: two metallicolous ecotypes, resident to serpentine soil (N...
Powdery mildew (PM) is a worldwide-occurring plant disease caused by ascomycete fungi of the order Erysiphales. A conspicuous number of plant species are susceptible to this disease, the occurrence of which is increasing due to the influence of climate change. Symptoms are easy to recognize by the powdery whitish fungal structures growing on the su...
