A novel, psychrotolerant facultative anaerobe, strain WN1359^T, was isolated from a permafrost borehole sample collected at the right bank of the Kolyma River in Siberia, Russia. Gram-positive-staining, non-motile, rod-shaped cells were observed with sizes of 1–2 µm long and 0.4–0.5 µm wide. Growth occurred in the range of pH 5.8–9.0 with optimal growth at pH 7.8–8.6 (pH optimum 8.2). The novel isolate grew at temperatures from 0–37 °C and optimal growth occurred at 25 °C. The novel isolate does not require NaCl; growth was observed between 0 and 8.8 % (1.5 M) NaCl with optimal growth at 0.5 % (w/v) NaCl. The isolate was a catalase-negative, facultatively anaerobic chemo-organoheterotroph that used sugars but not several single amino acids or dipeptides as substrates. The major metabolic end-product was lactic acid in the ratio of 86 % l-lactate : 14 % d-lactate. Strain WN1359^T was sensitive to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, fusidic acid, lincomycin, monocycline, rifampicin, rifamycin SV, spectinomycin, streptomycin, troleandomycin and vancomycin, and resistant to nalidixic acid and aztreonam. The fatty acid content was predominantly unsaturated (70.2 %), branched-chain unsaturated (11.7 %) and saturated (12.5 %). The DNA G+C content was 35.3 mol% by whole genome sequence analysis. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed 98.7 % sequence identity between strain WN1359^T and Carnobacterium inhibens . Genome relatedness was computed using both Genome-to-Genome Distance Analysis (GGDA) and Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI), which both strongly supported strain WN1359^T belonging to the species C. inhibens . On the basis of these results, the permafrost isolate WN1359^T represents a novel subspecies of C. inhibens , for which the name Carnobacterium inhibens subsp. gilichinskyi subsp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is WN1359^T ( = ATCC BAA-2557^T = DSM 27470^T). The subspecies Carnobacterium inhibens subsp. inhibens subsp. nov. is created automatically. An emended description of C. inhibens is also provided.

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merril], one of the most important crop species in the world, is very susceptible to abiotic and biotic stress. Soybean plants have developed a variety of molecular mechanisms that help them survive stressful conditions. Hybrid proline-rich proteins (HyPRPs) constitute a family of cell-wall proteins with a variable N-terminal domain and conserved C-terminal domain that is phylogenetically related to non-specific lipid transfer proteins. Members of the HyPRP family are involved in basic cellular processes and their expression and activity are modulated by environmental factors. In this study, microarray analysis and real time RT-qPCR were used to identify putative HyPRP genes in the soybean genome and to assess their expression in different plant tissues. Some of the genes were also analyzed by time-course real time RT-qPCR in response to infection by Phakopsora pachyrhizi, the causal agent of Asian soybean rust disease. Our findings indicate that the time of induction of a defense pathway is crucial in triggering the soybean resistance response to P. pachyrhizi. This is the first study to identify the soybean HyPRP group B family and to analyze disease-responsive GmHyPRP during infection by P. pachyrhizi.201

The ecology of complex microhabitats remains poorly characterized in most tropical and subtropical biomes, and holds potential to help understand the structure and dynamics of different biodiversity components in these ecosystems. We assessed nutritional and metabolic parameters of two bromeliad species (Aechmea gamosepala and Vriesea platynema) at an Atlantic Forest site and used 16S rDNA metabarcoding to survey the microbial communities inhabiting their tanks. We observed that levels of some nutrients (e.g., nitrogen) varied across seasons consistently in both species, while others (e.g., phenolic compounds) presented considerable differences between the two bromeliads. In contrast, patterns of tank microbial diversity did not follow a similar temporal trend. There was extensive variation in microbial composition among samples, which included intra-specific differences but also some consistent differences between the two bromeliads. For example, Citrobacter, Klebsiella and Pantoea presented significantly different abundances in the two species. Interestingly, the dominant bacterial genera in both species included Pseudomonas and Enterobacter, which have been reported to include plant-beneficial species. Overall, our data contribute to the characterization of the nutritional status of Atlantic Forest bromeliads and the composition of their prokaryotic communities, laying the foundation for detailed investigations targeting the ecological interactions between these plants and their associated microbes.