Host-pathogen interactions are among the most prevalent and evolutionary important interactions known today. The predation of prokaryotes by their viruses is happening on an especially large scale and had a major influence on the evolutionary history of prokaryotes. Since most viruses are lytic at some point in their life-cycle, there is a high sel...
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...
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...
Projections on the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity foresee prolonged and/or increased stress intensities and enlargement of a significant number of pathogens habitats. This significantly raises the occurrence probability of (new) abiotic and biotic stress combinations. With stress tolerance research being mostly focused on res...
Plants interact with many organisms around them, and one of the most important groups that a plant has to deal with, are the herbivores. Insects represent the most diverse group of herbivores and have many different ways of using the plant as a food source. Plants can, however, defend themselves against those herbivores, either by constitutive defe...
Binnen dit project worden twee nieuwe methoden van plantversterking tegen ziekten en plagen onderzocht: a. het gebruik van bacteriën die al op het bedrijf aanwezig zijn; en b. bacteriën die in de plant aanwezig zijn. Door het gebruik van bacteriën uit de plant of teelt substraat is de kans groter dat antagonisten succesvol ingezet kunnen worden. Ba...
This thesis explores whether aphid-infestation interferes with the plant response to chewing herbivores and whether this impacts performance and behaviour of individual chewing insect herbivores and their natural enemies, as well as the entire insect community. I investigated this using three wild cabbage populations (Brassica oleracea) that are kn...
Though immobile, plants are members of complex environments, and are under constant threat from a wide range of attackers, which includes organisms such as insect herbivores or plant pathogens. Plants have developed sophisticated defenses against these attackers, and include chemical responses such as the production of and emission of volatile comp...
Pseudocercospora fijiensis causes black Sigatoka disease of banana. It is one of the most damaging threats of the crop requiring excessive fungicide applications for disease control as the major export “Cavendish” clones are highly susceptible. The consequence of this practice is the reduced efficacy of disease management strategies due to increasi...
Plants and microorganisms are constantly engaged in highly dynamic interactions both above- and belowground. Several of these interactions are mediated by volatile organic compounds (VOCs), small carbon-based compounds with high vapor pressure at ambient temperature. In the rhizosphere, VOCs have an advantage in intra- and interorganismal signaling...
