Theresa F. Law

TL;DR: It is suggested that MIRNA genes are undergoing relatively frequent birth and death, with only a subset being stabilized by integration into regulatory networks.

TL;DR: It is established that a genetic network controlling the phosphate stress response influences the structure of the root microbiome community, even under non-stress phosphate conditions, and that the master transcriptional regulators of phosphate Stress Response in Arabidopsis thaliana directly repress defence, consistent with plant prioritization of nutritional stress over defence.

TL;DR: Experiments using an ecologically realistic 185-member bacterial synthetic community in the root system of Arabidopsis reveal that Variovorax bacteria can influence plant hormone levels to reverse the inhibitory effect of the community on root growth.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that plant–bacterium binary-association assays inform the design of small synthetic communities with predictable phenotypes in the host and that it is possible to infer causal relationships between microbiota membership and host phenotypes and to use these inferences to rationally design novel communities.

TL;DR: Pi-stressed plants are susceptible to colonization by latent opportunistic competitors found within their microbiome, thus exacerbating the plant’s Pi starvation.