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March 2007 Spotlight Articles Selected by the Editors of Plant Disease, Phytopathology, and Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (MPMI) Plant Disease Editor’s Pick What causes coffee crispness disease in Columbia? For over 60 years, coffee trees have been affected by a mysterious malady that produces curled leaves, abnormal proliferation of apical meristem, and monospermic berries. More on how Carlos Galvis and co-workers discovered the first phytoplasma in coffee is featured in the March Plant Disease Editor’s Pick. Phytopathology Editor’s Pick The helper component protease (HC-Pro) of viruses in the family /Potyviridae/ is multifunctional. Two articles in the March issue of Phytopathology report findings on HC-Pro with practical implications. One describes how site-directed mutatgenesis can be used to generate attenuated strains for use in cross protection. The other reports that transgenic expression of HC-Pro in soybean results in significant reduction in seed production. MPMI Editor’s Pick Two articles in the March issue of MPMI address the molecular biology of cyst nematodes. Ithal et al. used an Affymetrix chip containing both soybean and cyst nematode (Heterodera glycines) genes to monitor concurrent changes in expression of more than 35,000 soybean genes and 7400 nematode genes during a compatible interaction. More than 400 plant and 1800 nematode genes showed changes in expression. Baketia et al. focused on genes expressed in the pharyngeal glands of H. glycines. Expression of five genes was suppressed using RNAi, which resulted in changing the proportion of males to females. An online subscription is needed to access the full articles. Members of the media should contact Amy Steigman at mailto:asteigman@scisoc.org or +1.651.454.7250 for more information or to receive a copy of the full articles. Return to Plant Disease Interpretive Summaries Archive
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