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Plants encounter throughout their life all kinds of microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, or oomycetes, with either friendly or unfriendly intentions. During evolution, plants have developed a wide range of defense mechanisms against attackers. In return, adapted microbes have developed strategies to overcome the plant lines of defense, some of these microbes engaging in mutualistic or parasitic endosymbioses. By sensing microbe presence and activating signaling cascades, the plasma membrane through its dynamics plays a crucial role in the ongoing molecular dialogue between plants and microbes. This review describes the contribution of endocytosis to different aspects of plant-microbe interactions, microbe recognition and development of a basal immune response, and colonization of plant cells by endosymbionts. The putative endocytic routes for the entry of microbe molecules or microbes themselves are explored with a special emphasis on clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Finally, we evaluate recent findings that suggest a link between the compartmentalization of plant plasma membrane into microdomains and endocytosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We constructed and characterized the first large-insert DNA BAC library for Arabidopsis halleri, a close relative of Arabidopsis thaliana. Double size selection of high molecular weight DNA was performed to increase the average insert size. The BAC library consists of 6128 clones of which 87% have an insert size above 125kb. Organellar DNA contamination is estimated to 1.4%. The coverage of the library is equivalent to 4.5 times the haploid genome (250Mb), indicating the library is suitable for almost any application. We explored the possibility of generating a physical map of A. halleri using the high conserved synteny existing between this species and A. thaliana. A set of unigenes separated by 50kb in a 850kb region of A. thaliana chromosome II was used to probe the library. The A. halleri BAC clones isolated with these probes were grouped into two contigs. Analysis of BAC-end sequences revealed that the two A. halleri genomic contigs were highly colinear with the A. thaliana genome. Therefore, the exploitation of the conserved synteny existing between the two species will greatly facilitate the construction of a raw full physical map of A. halleri. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]