Background: The pioneering ancestor of land plants that conquered terrestrial habitats around 500 million years ago had to face dramatic stresses including UV radiation, desiccation, and microbial attack. This drove a number of adaptations, among which the emergence of the phenylpropanoid pathway was crucial, leading to essential compounds such as flavonoids and lignin. However, the origin of this specific land plant secondary metabolism has not been clarified.Results: We have performed an extensive analysis of the taxonomic distribution and phylogeny of Phenylalanine Ammonia Lyase (PAL), which catalyses the first and essential step of the general phenylpropanoid pathway, leading from phenylalanine to p-Coumaric acid and p-Coumaroyl-CoA, the entry points of the flavonoids and lignin routes. We obtained robust evidence that the ancestor of land plants acquired a PALviahorizontal gene transfer (HGT) during symbioses with soil bacteria and fungi that are known to have established very early during the first steps of land colonization. This horizontally acquired PAL represented then the basis for further development of the phenylpropanoid pathway and plant radiation on terrestrial environments.Conclusion: Our results highlight a possible crucial role of HGT from soil bacteria in the path leading to land colonization by plants and their subsequent evolution. The few functional characterizations of sediment/soil bacterial PAL (production of secondary metabolites with powerful antimicrobial activity or production of pigments) suggest that the initial advantage of this horizontally acquired PAL in the ancestor of land plants might have been either defense against an already developed microbial community and/or protection against UV.Reviewers: This article was reviewed by Purificación López-García, Janet Siefert, and Eugene Koonin.

Drought is one of the major constraints limiting agricultural production worldwide and is expected to increase in the future. Limited water availability causes significant effects to plant growth and physiology. Plants have evolved different traits to mitigate the stress imposed by drought. The presence of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) could play an important role in improving plant performances and productivity under drought. These beneficial microorganisms colonize the rhizosphere of plants and increase drought tolerance by lowering ethylene formation. In the present study, we demonstrate the potential to improve the growth of velvet bean under water deficit conditions of two different strains of PGPR with ACCd (1-Aminocyclopropane-1-Carboxylate deaminase) activity isolated from rainfed farming system. We compared uninoculated and inoculated plants with PGPR to assess: a) photosynthetic performance and biomass; b) ACC content and ethylene emission from leaves and roots; c) leaf isoprene emission. Our results provided evidence that under drought conditions inoculation with PGPR containing the ACCd enzyme could improve plant growth compared to untreated plants. Ethylene emission from roots and leaves of inoculated velvet bean plants was significantly lower than uninoculated plants. Moreover, isoprene emission increased with drought stress progression and was higher in inoculated plants compared to uninoculated counterparts. These findings clearly illustrate that selected PGPR strains isolated from rainfed areas could be highly effective in promoting plant growth under drought conditions by decreasing ACC and ethylene levels in plants.

Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 is representative of a highly problematic group of cystic fibrosis (CF) pathogens. Eradication of B. cenocepacia is very difficult with the antimicrobial therapy being ineffective due to its high resistance to clinically relevant antimicrobial agents and disinfectants. RND (Resistance-Nodulation-Cell Division) efflux pumps are known to be among the mediators of multidrug resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. Since the significance of the 16 RND efflux systems present in B. cenocepacia (named RND-1 to -16) has been only partially determined, the aim of this work was to analyze mutants of B. cenocepacia strain J2315 impaired in RND-4 and RND-9 efflux systems, and assess their role in the efflux of toxic compounds. The transcriptomes of mutants deleted individually in RND-4 and RND-9 (named D4 and D9), and a double-mutant in both efflux pumps (named D4-D9), were compared to that of the wild-type B. cenocepacia using microarray analysis. Microarray data were confirmed by qRT-PCR, phenotypic experiments, and by Phenotype MicroArray analysis. The data revealed that RND-4 made a significant contribution to the antibiotic resistance of B. cenocepacia, whereas RND-9 was only marginally involved in this process. Moreover, the double mutant D4-D9 showed a phenotype and an expression profile similar to D4. The microarray data showed that motility and chemotaxis-related genes appeared to be up-regulated in both D4 and D4–D9 strains. In contrast, these gene sets were down-regulated or expressed at levels similar to J2315 in the D9 mutant. Biofilm production was enhanced in all mutants. Overall, these results indicate that in B. cenocepacia RND pumps play a wider role than just in drug resistance, influencing additional phenotypic traits important for pathogenesis.