EdeLab & Research Explained!

This excerpt from  Gertrude B. Elion's   The Quest for a Cure  recounts her remarkable career in medicinal chemistry, particularly her groundbreaking work on purine analogs and their therapeutic applications. The article chronicles her journey from early struggles to find a research position to her leadership in the development of life-saving drugs such as  6-mercaptopurine  for leukemia,  azathio...

This research article investigates the evolution of effector proteins, secreted proteins that fungal pathogens use to infect plants. The study focuses on  sequence-unrelated structurally similar (SUSS) effectors , proteins that share similar structures but have very little sequence similarity, highlighting how these effectors have evolved through  divergent evolution  and  domain fusion . The rese...

This research paper examines the protein structures of secreted molecules, called effectors, from various gall-forming pathogens, including fungi, oomycetes, and plasmodiophorids. By using AlphaFold2, a powerful machine learning tool for predicting protein structures, the researchers identified several key protein folds that are conserved across kingdoms. The analysis revealed species-specific exp...

This is an excerpt from a review article published in the  Annual Review of Plant Biology . The author, David Baulcombe, reflects on his research career which spans over forty years. His research has focused on plant virology, RNA silencing, epigenetics, and plant evolution. Through various anecdotes and examples, the author describes his scientific journey and the importance of having a tractable...

This research article focuses on the clubroot pathogen  Plasmodiophora brassicae , which is a devastating disease affecting brassica crops worldwide. The authors have successfully sequenced the complete genome of  P. brassicae , including the telomeres. This is the first complete genome assembly for any member of the Rhizaria group, to which  P. brassicae  belongs. The authors annotated the genome...

This research explores the mechanism by which the  FLS2 receptor , a key player in plant immunity, recognizes  bacterial flagellin  and triggers a defense response. The study discovered that some FLS2 homologs have  expanded recognition ranges  and can detect a wider variety of flagellin variants. Using  structure-guided engineering , researchers were able to introduce these expanded recognition c...

Canola ( Brassica napus  L.), a valuable oilseed crop, faces significant challenges from diseases such as clubroot and blackleg, threatening global yields. To improve disease resistance, it’s crucial to accurately annotate nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs), which are key components of plant immune systems. In this study we focused on refining the NLR repertoire (NLRome) of th...