Publications by authors named "Gloria Pinto"

Rising global temperatures are increasingly affecting plant performance, leading to reduced growth, altered metabolism, and compromised membrane integrity. Although plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) show promise in enhancing thermotolerance, the underlying mechanisms remain insufficiently explored. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of PGPB inoculation on under control (26 °C) and heat stress (36 °C) conditions.

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Ink disease caused by the hemibiotrophic root pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi (Pc) is devastating for the European chestnut (Castanea sativa), unlike Asian chestnuts and interspecific hybrids, which are resistant to Pc. The role that hormone responses play for Pc resistance remains little understood, especially regarding the temporal regulation of hormone responses. We explored the relationship between changes in tree health and physiology and alterations in leaf and root phytohormones and primary and secondary metabolites during compatible and incompatible Castanea spp.

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Aims: Climate change is endangering olive groves. Farmers are adapting by exploring new varieties of olive trees and examining the role of microbiomes in plant health.The main objectives of this work were to determine the primary factors that influence the microbiome of olive trees and to analyze the connection between the rhizosphere and endosphere compartments.

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Needle blights are serious fungal diseases affecting European natural and planted pine forests. Brown-spot needle blight (BSNB) disease, caused by the fungus Lecanosticta acicola, causes canopy defoliation and severe productivity losses, with consequences depending on host susceptibility. To gain new insights into BSNB plant-pathogen interactions, constitutive and pathogen-induced traits were assessed in two host species with differential disease susceptibility.

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Tamarillo ( Cav.) is a subtropical solanaceous tree with increasing agronomic interest due to its nutritious edible fruits. Growing demand for tamarillo plants and fruits requires optimization of existing propagation methods and scaled-up systems for large-scale cloning of selected germplasm.

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Strawberry tree () is a small resilient species with a circum-Mediterranean distribution, high ecological relevance in southern European forests and with several economical applications. As most orchards are usually installed on marginal lands where plants usually face severe drought, selecting plants that can better cope with water restriction is critical, and a better understanding of the tolerance mechanisms is required. Strawberry tree plants under drought follow a typical isohydric strategy, by limiting transpiration through stomata closure.

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In an era of climate change and global trade, forests sustainability is endangered by several biotic threats. Pine pitch canker (PPC), caused by , is one of the most important disease affecting conifers worldwide. To date, no effective control measures have been found for this disease.

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An accurate profile of gene expression at a cellular level can contribute to a better understanding of biological processes and complexities involved in regulatory mechanism of woody plants. Laser microdissection is one technique that allows isolation of specific, target cells or tissue from a heterogeneous cell population. This technique entails microscopic visualization of the selected tissue and use a laser beam to separate the desired cells from surrounding tissue.

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Diseases and climate change are major factors limiting grape productivity and fruit marketability. is a fungus of the family Botryosphaeriaceae that causes Botryosphaeria dieback of grapevine worldwide. Abiotic stress may change host vitality and impact susceptibility to the pathogen and/or change the pathogen's life cycle.

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Background: Here, we investigated changes in primary metabolism and cell death around oviposition sites in two hybrid clones of Eucalyptus with different degrees of resistance to Leptocybe invasa Fisher & La Salle (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), as well as tolerance to water deficiency.

Results: We showed that apices of the resistant clone with oviposition had a higher content of amino acids, organic acids and the compound putrescine compared with those of the susceptible clone with oviposition. By contrast, apices of the resistant clone with oviposition had lower sugar and pyruvate organic acid content than those of the susceptible clone with oviposition.

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Fusarium circinatum, causing pine pitch canker (PPC), affects conifers productivity and health worldwide. Selection and breeding for resistance arises as the most promising approach to fight PPC. Therefore, it is crucial to explore the response of hosts with varying levels of susceptibility to PPC to unveil the genes/pathways behind these phenotypes.

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The rhizobiome is being increasingly acknowledged as a key player in plant health and breeding strategies. The pine pitch canker (PPC), caused by the fungus Fusarium circinatum, affects pine species with varying susceptibility degrees. Our aims were to explore the bacterial rhizobiome of a susceptible (Pinus radiata) and a resistant (Pinus pinea) species together with other physiological traits, and to analyze shifts upon F.

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For non-native tree species with an origin outside of Europe a detailed compilation of enemy species including the severity of their attack is lacking up to now. We collected information on native and non-native species attacking non-native trees, i.e.

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Although epigenetic modifications have been intensely investigated over the last decade due to their role in crop adaptation to rapid climate change, it is unclear which epigenetic changes are heritable and therefore transmitted to their progeny. The identification of epigenetic marks that are transmitted to the next generations is of primary importance for their use in breeding and for the development of new cultivars with a broad-spectrum of tolerance/resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. In this review, we discuss general aspects of plant responses to environmental stresses and provide an overview of recent findings on the role of transgenerational epigenetic modifications in crops.

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causes one of the most important diseases of conifers worldwide, the pine pitch canker (PPC). However, no effective field intervention measures aiming to control or eradicate PPC are available. Due to the variation in host genetic resistance, the development of resistant varieties is postulated as a viable and promising strategy.

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The contamination left by abandoned mines demands sustainable mitigation measures. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the phytoremediator ability of Eucalyptus globulus Labill. to be used for cleaning up metal-contaminated soils from an African abandoned iron (Fe) mine (Ait Ammar, Oued Zem, Morocco).

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Pine pitch canker (PPC), caused by Fusarium circinatum Nirenberg and O'Donnell, represents an important threat to conifer forests worldwide, being associated with significant economic losses. Although essential to develop disease mitigation strategies, little research focused on host susceptibility/resistance mechanisms has been conducted. We aimed to explore the response of a highly susceptible (Pinus radiata D.

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Background: The significance of morphological responses of hosts on susceptibility against gall-inducing insects is relatively unknown, especially in planted forests. Here, we investigate the temporal morphological responses (gall development) induced by the invasive gall wasp Leptocybe invasa and the subsequent insect development in two Eucalyptus clones.

Results: Our results identified a novel stage of gall development, not previously reported, termed here 'brownish ring'.

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Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is a species of ecological, social and economic importance in the Mediterranean region. Given its xerophytic adaptability, the study of cork oak's response to drought stress conditions may provide important data in the global scenario of climate change.

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Despite it being an important issue in the context of climate change, for most plant species it is not currently known how abiotic stresses affect nuclear proteomes and mediate memory effects. This study examines how Pinus radiata nuclei respond, adapt, 'remember', and 'learn' from heat stress. Seedlings were heat-stressed at 45 °C for 10 d and then allowed to recover.

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Phytophthora cinnamomi (Pc) is a dangerous pathogen that causes root rot (ink disease) and threatens the production of chestnuts worldwide. Despite all the advances recently reported at molecular and physiological level, there are still gaps of knowledge that would help to unveil the defence mechanisms behind plant-Pc interactions. Bearing this in mind we quantified constitutive and Pc-induced stress-related signals (hormones and metabolites) complemented with changes in photosynthetic related parameters by exploring susceptible and resistant Castanea spp.

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The worldwide increase in the consumption of antibiotics is becoming a concern for the scientific community, since the presence of their residues in the wild poses specific challenges, especially in ecotoxicological terms. Currently, antibiotics are used for a wide range of purposes, being used against bacterial diseases but also as growth promoters. As a result, their environmental presence can affect wild organisms, especially those from the aquatic environment.

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For several years, the scientific community has been concerned about the presence of pharmaceuticals in the wild, since these compounds may have unpredictable deleterious effects on living organisms. Two examples of widely used pharmaceuticals that are present in the environment are paracetamol and ciprofloxacin. Despite their common presence in the aquatic environment due to their poor removal by sewage treatment plants, knowledge concerning their putative toxic effects is still scarce.

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, the causal agent of pine pitch canker (PPC), is an emergent and still understudied risk that threatens forests worldwide, with potential production and sustainability losses. In order to explore the response of pine species with distinct levels of susceptibility to PPC, we investigated changes in physiology, hormones, specific gene transcripts, and primary metabolism occurring in symptomatic , , and upon inoculation with . and exhibiting high and intermediate susceptibility to PPC, respectively, suffered changes in plant water status and photosynthetic impairment.

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The SnRK (Snf1-Related protein Kinase) gene family plays an important role in energy sensing and stress-adaptive responses in plant systems. In this study, Chlamydomonas CKIN family (SnRK in Arabidopsis) was defined after a genome-wide analysis of all sequenced Chlorophytes. Twenty-two sequences were defined as plant SnRK orthologs in Chlamydomonas and classified into two subfamilies: CKIN1 and CKIN2.

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