Gerrit T S Beemster

University of Antwerp | UA · Department of Biology

Aquatic biota are threatened by climate warming as well as other anthropogenic stressors such as eutrophication by phosphates and nitrate. However, it remains unclear how nitrate exposure can alter the resilience of microalgae to climate warming, particularly heatwaves. To get a better understanding of these processes, we investigated the effect of...

Flooding impairs plant growth through oxygen deprivation, which activates plant survival and acclimation responses. Low-oxygen responses are generally associated with activation of group VII ETHYLENE-RESPONSE FACTOR (ERFVII) transcription factors. However, mechanism and molecular components by which ERFVII factors initiate gene expression are not f...

Key Message A novel non-steady-state kinematic analysis shows differences in cell division and expansion determining a better recovery from a 3-day cold spell in emerged compared to non-emerged maize leaves. Abstract Zea mays is highly sensitive to chilling which frequently occurs during its seedling stage. Although the direct effect of chilling i...

Climate models suggest that the persistence of summer precipitation regimes (PRs) is on the rise, characterized by both longer dry and longer wet durations. These PR changes may alter plant biochemical composition and thereby their economic and ecological characteristics. However, impacts of PR persistence have primarily been studied at the communi...

Salt stress induces significant loss in crop yield worldwide. Although the growth‐stimulating effects of micronutrient nanoparticles (NPs) application under salinity have been studied, the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying these effects are poorly understood. The large size of maize leaf growth zones provides an ideal model system to...

• Zea mays, a major crop, is highly sensitive to chilling which frequently occurs during its seedling stage and negatively affects yields. Although the direct effect of chilling is well-studied, the mechanisms determining the subsequent recovery are still unknown. Our goal is to determine the cellular basis of the leaf growth response to chilling a...

Zea mays, a major crop, is highly sensitive to chilling which frequently occurs during its seedling stage and negatively affects yields. Although the direct effect of chilling is well-studied, the mechanisms determining the subsequent recovery are still unknown. Our goal is to determine the cellular basis of the dynamic leaf growth response to chil...

For the past 7 decades, PFAS have been used in many different products and applications, which has led to a widespread contamination of these compounds. Nevertheless at present, little is known about the effects of these compounds on avian wildlife. Therefore, this study investigated associations between PFAS concentrations in the plasma and the ox...

A soil history of exposure to extreme weather may impact future plant growth and microbial community assembly. Currently, little is known about whether and how previous precipitation regime (PR)-induced changes in soil microbial communities influence plant and soil microbial community responses to a subsequent PR. We exposed grassland mesocosms to...

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays a vital role in the induction of low temperature tolerance in plants. To understand the molecular basis of this phenomenon, we performed a proteomic analysis on an ABA-deficit mutant barley (Az34) and its wild type (cv Steptoe) under control conditions (25/18 °C) and after exposure to 0 °C for 24 h. Most of the differentia...

Due to the growing world population and increasing environmental stress, improving the production, nutritional quality, and pharmaceutical applications of plants has become an urgent need. Therefore, the current research was designed to investigate the impact of seed priming using plant-growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) along with selenium nanoparti...

The current state of knowledge on bud dormancy is limited. However, expanding such knowledge is crucial in order to properly model forest responses and feedback to future climate. Recent studies have shown that warming can decrease chilling accumulation and increase dormancy depth, thereby inducing delayed budburst in European beech (Fagus sylvatic...

Maize (Zea mays), a cold-sensitive crop, requires cold tolerance for extending the length of the growing season in temperate climates. However, response curves to different cold temperatures and exposure durations are lacking. We used a meta-analysis approach using data from literature to investigate the effect of cold stress in the maize leaf. We...

Rice is a highly valuable crop consumed all over the world. Soil pollution, more specifically chromium (Cr), decreases rice yield and quality. Future climate CO2 (eCO2) is known to affect the growth and yield of crops as well as the quality parameters associated with human health. However, the detailed physiological and biochemical responses induce...

Arsenic (As) is a group-1 carcinogenic metalloid that threatens global food safety and security, primarily via its phytotoxicity in the staple crop rice. In the present study, ThioAC, the co-application of thiourea (TU, a non-physiological redox regulator) and N. lucentensis (Act, an As-detoxifying actinobacteria), was evaluated as a low-cost appro...

Arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi (AMF) symbiosis is an indispensable approach in sustainable agriculture. AMF-plant association is likely to be enhanced by the nanoparticle's application. Herein, the impact of chitosan nanoparticles (CSNPs) on the mycorrhizal colonization in wheat has been investigated. The provoked changes in wheat growth, physiology...

Elevated CO2 (eCO2) reduces the impact of drought, but the mechanisms underlying this effect remain unclear. Therefore, we used a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the interaction of drought and eCO2 in Arabidopsis thaliana leaves. Transcriptome and subsequent metabolite analyses identified a strong induction of the aliphatic glucosinolate...

Drought negatively affects crop growth and development, so it is crucial to develop practical ways to reduce these consequences of water scarcity. The effect of the interactive potential of compost (Comp), mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and carbon nanoparticles (CNPS) on plant growth, photosynthesis rate, primary metabolism, and secondary metabolism was...

Drought is an important threat worldwide, therefore, it is vital to create workable solutions to mitigate the negative effects of drought stress. To this end, we investigated the interactive effect of compost (Comp), arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) on maize plant crops under drought stress. The combined treatments...

We investigated the effect of plant growth-promoting bacterial strains (PGPB) as biofertilisers on the grain metabolic composition of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.). To this aim, we conducted a greenhouse experiment where we grew durum wheat plants supplied with a biofertiliser consortium of four PGPB and/or chemical fertiliser (containing nitr...

Aluminum (Al) toxicity limits crops growth and production in acidic soils. Compared to roots, less is known about the toxic effects of Al in leaves. Al subcellular compartmentalization is also largely unknown. Using rye (Secale cereale L.) Beira (more tolerant) and RioDeva (more sensitive to Al) genotypes, we evaluated the patterns of Al accumul...

Seaweeds are well known for having a wealth of nutritional benefits and providing ecological support to associated fauna. Seasonality influences the biochemical characteristics, affecting their ecological and economic values. In the present study, we evaluated pigments, primary and secondary metabolites, minerals, and antioxidant properties of gree...

Even though it is a forest native plant, there are already several studies evaluating the small genome of Jatropha curcas L., which belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family, and may be an excellent representative model for the other plants from the same family. Jatropha curcas L. plant has fast growth, precocity, and great adaptability, facilitating sil...

The hormone gibberellin (GA) controls plant growth and regulates growth responses to environmental stress. In monocotyledonous leaves, GA controls growth by regulating division–zone size. We used a systems approach to investigate the establishment of the GA distribution in the maize leaf growth zone to understand how drought and cold alter leaf gro...

Chromium (Cr) contamination reduces crop productivity worldwide. On the other hand, the expected increase in the future CO2 levels (eCO2) would improve plant growth under diverse growth conditions. However, the synergetic effect of eCO2 has not been investigated at both physiological and biochemical levels in Cr-contaminated soil. This study aims t...

Ocean acidification is impacting marine life all over the world. Understanding how species can cope with the changes in seawater carbonate chemistry represents a challenging issue. We addressed this topic using underwater CO2 vents that naturally acidify some marine areas off the island of Ischia. In the most acidified area of the vents, having a m...

Plants are exposed to regular diurnal rhythms of light and dark. Changes in the photoperiod by the prolongation of the light period cause photoperiod stress in short day-adapted Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we report on the transcriptional response to photoperiod stress of wild-type A. thaliana and photoperiod stress-sensitive cytokinin signaling an...

Climate change will likely increase weather persistence in the mid-latitudes, resulting in precipitation regimes (PR) with longer dry and wet periods compared to historic averages. This could affect terrestrial ecosystems substantially through the increased occurrence of repeated, prolonged drought and water logging conditions. Climate history is a...

Marrubium vulgare is a valuable source of natural bioactive molecules with high preventive and therapeutic effectiveness. Therefore, this study aimed to study the chemical polymorphism of natural populations of M. vulgare in Tunisia by quantitative chemical markers and the estimation of divergence between populations. Phytochemical analyses of the...

In this study, the physiology of symbiotic ‘peacock-tail’ shrimp Ancylocaris brevicarpalis and its host ‘Haddon's carpet’ sea anemone Stichodactyla haddoni were tested under lowered pH (7.7) and control (8.1) conditions. The biochemical responses such as digestive enzyme (AP), organic acids (lactate and succinate), oxidative damages (MDA), antioxid...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are beneficial for the plant growth under heavy metal stress. Such beneficial effect is improved by elevated CO2 (eCO2). However, the mechanisms by which eCO2 improves AMF symbiotic associations under arsenite (AsIII) toxicity are hardly studied. Herein, we compared these regulatory mechanisms in species from two...

Heavy metal contamination in soil is increasing rapidly due to increasing anthropogenic activities. Despite the importance of rose-scented geranium as a medicinal plant, little attention was paid to enhancing its productivity in heavy metal-polluted soil. In this regard, endophytes improve plant resistance to heavy metal toxicity and enhance its ti...

Cadmium (Cd), a readily absorbed and translocated toxic heavy metal, inhibits plant growth, interrupts metabolic homeostasis and induces oxidative damage. Responses towards Cd-stress differ among plant cultivars, and the complex integrated relationships between Cd accumulation, detoxification mechanisms and antioxidant defenses still need to be unr...

The sequestration of elevated atmospheric CO2 levels in seawater results in increasing acidification of oceans and it is unclear what the consequences of this will be on seaweed ecophysiology and ecological services they provide in the coastal ecosystem. In the present study, we examined the physiological and biochemical response of intertidal gree...

Main conclusions Sugar-mediated osmotic acclimation and a strong antioxidative response reduce drought-induced biomass loss at the vegetative stage in rice. Abstract A clear understanding of the physiological and biochemical adaptations to water limitation in upland and aerobic rice can help to identify the mechanisms underlying their tolerance to...

Accumulation of arsenic in plant tissues poses a substantial threat to global crop yields. The use of plant growth-promoting bacterial strains to mitigate heavy metal toxicity has been illustrated before. However, its potential to reduce plant arsenic uptake and toxicity has not been investigated to date. Here, we describe the identification and ch...

Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are a group of synthetic persistent chemicals with distinctive properties, such as a high thermal and chemical stability, that make them suitable for a wide range of applications. They have been produced since the 1950s, resulting in a global contamination of the environment and wildlife. They are resistant to biodegrad...

Plants are exposed to regular diurnal rhythms of light and dark. Changes in the photoperiod by the prolongation of the light period cause photoperiod stress in short day-adapted Arabidopsis thaliana . Here we report on the transcriptional response to photoperiod stress of wild-type A. thaliana and photoperiod stress-sensitive cytokinin signalling a...

Drought stress impacts the quality and yield of Pisum sativum. Here we show how short periods of limited water availability during the vegetative stage of pea alters phloem sap content and how these changes are connected to strategies used by plants to cope with water deficit. We have investigated metabolic content of phloem sap exudates and explor...

Cinnamaldehyde mitigates placental vascular dysfunction of gestational diabetes and protects from the associated fetal hypoxia by modulating placental angiogenesis, metabolic activity and oxidative stress ARTICLE INFO Ch emical co mpou nd s stud ied in th is article: Ci nnam al dehyde (PubChem CI D: 637511) Glyburide (PubChem CI D: 3488) Metfor mi...

Cinnamaldehyde mitigates placental vascular dysfunction of gestational diabetes and protects from the associated fetal hypoxia by modulating placental angiogenesis, metabolic activity and oxidative stress ARTICLE INFO Ch emical co mpou nd s stud ied in th is article: Ci nnam al dehyde (PubChem CI D: 637511) Glyburide (PubChem CI D: 3488) Metfor mi...

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a major pregnancy-related disorder with an increasing prevalence worldwide. GDM is associated with altered placental vascular functions and has severe consequences for fetal growth. There is no commonly accepted medication for GDM due to safety considerations. Actions of the currently limited therapeutic optio...

Growth is one of the most studied plant responses. At the cellular level, plant growth is driven by cell division and cell expansion. A means to quantify these two cellular processes is through kinematic analysis, a methodology that has been developed and perfected over the past decades, with in-depth descriptions of the methodology available. Unfo...

Aluminium (Al) toxicity limits crop productivity, particularly at low soil pH. Proline (Pro) plays a role in protecting plants against various abiotic stresses. Using the relatively Al-tolerant cereal rye (Secale cereale L.), we evaluated Pro metabolism in roots and shoots of two genotypes differing in Al tolerance, var. RioDeva (sensitive) and var...

This study aims at exploiting salinity stress as an innovative, simple, and cheap method to enhance the production of antioxidant metabolites and enzymes from bacteria for potential application as functional additives to foods and pharmaceuticals. We investigated the physiological and biochemical responses of four bacterial isolates, which exhibite...

In cattle, pre-implantation embryo development occurs within the confinement of the uterine lumen. Current understanding of the bi-lateral molecular interactions between embryo and endometrium that are required for a successful pregnancy is limited. We hypothesized that nature and intensity of reciprocal embryo-endometrium interactions depend on th...

It is well known that cadmium (Cd) pollution inhibits plant growth, but how this metal impacts leaf growth processes at the cellular and molecular level is still largely unknown. In the current study, we show that Cd specifically accumulates in the meristematic tissue of the growing maize leaf, while Cd concentration in the elongation zone rapidly...

Although plant organ shapes are defined by spatio-temporal variations of directional tissue expansion, this is a little characterized aspect of organ growth regulation. Although it is well known that the plant hormone gibberellin increases the leaf length/with ratio, its effects on cell expansion in the growing leaf are largely unknown. To understa...

To understand the growth response to drought, we performed a proteomics study in the leaf growth zone of maize (Zea mays L.) seedlings and functionally characterized the role of starch biosynthesis in the regulation of growth, photosynthesis and antioxidant capacity, using the shrunken‐2 mutant (sh2 ), defective in ADP‐glucose pyrophosphorylase. Dr...

Selective logging is the dominant form of human disturbance in tropical forests, driving changes in the abundance of vertebrate and invertebrate populations relative to undisturbed old‐growth forests. A key unresolved question is understanding which physiological mechanisms underlie different responses of species and functional groups to selective...

Worldwide contamination of agricultural soils with cadmium (Cd) not only leads to reduced plant yield, but accumulation within the edible plant parts also poses a serious threat to human health. In this study, the rice leaf growth zone was used to examine how the effects of Cd on leaf growth are mediated by its effect on cell division and expansion...

Study question: Does oocyte maturation under lipolytic conditions have detrimental carry-over effects on post-hatching embryo development of good-quality blastocysts after transfer? Summary answer: Surviving, morphologically normal blastocysts derived from bovine oocytes that matured under lipotoxic conditions exhibit long-lasting cellular dysfu...

We investigated the interaction between osmotic stress and auxin signaling in leaf growth regulation. Therefore, we grew Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings on agar media supplemented with mannitol to impose osmotic stress and 1‐naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), a synthetic auxin. We performed kinematic analysis and flow‐cytometry to quantify the effects on...

Heavy metal accumulation in agricultural land causes crop production losses worldwide. Metal homeostasis within cells is tightly regulated. However, homeostasis breakdown leads to accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Overall plant fitness under stressful environment is determined by coordination between roots and shoots. But little is kno...

We utilized volcanic CO2 vents at Castello Aragonese off Ischia Island as a natural laboratory to investigate the effect of lowered pH/elevated CO2 on the bioactivities of extracts from fleshy brown algae Sargassum vulgare C. Agardh. We analysed the carbohydrate levels, antioxidant capacity, antibacterial, antifungal, antiprotozoal, anticancer prop...

We studied the maize leaf to understand how long‐distance signals, auxin and cytokinin, control leaf growth dynamics. We constructed a mathematical model describing the transport of these hormones along the leaf growth zone and their interaction with the local gibberellin (GA) metabolism in the control of cell division. Assuming gradually declining...

From the cellular perspective, organ growth is determined by production and growth of cells. Uncovering how these two processes are coordinated is essential for understanding organogenesis and regulation of organ growth. We utilized phenotypic and genetic variation of 252 natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana to conduct genome‐wide association...

We analysed the cellular and molecular changes in the leaf growth zone of tolerant and sensitive rice varieties in response to suboptimal temperatures. Cold reduced the final leaf length by 35% and 51% in tolerant and sensitive varieties, respectively. Tolerant lines exhibited a smaller reduction of the leaf elongation rate and greater compensation...

Biotic interactions shape community evolution, but we lack mechanistic insights on how metabolic and ecological processes under climate change are altered by biotic interactions. We used a two‐trophic model community consisting of the aphid Dysaphis plantaginea feeding on the forb Plantago lanceolata, and a grass competitor Lolium perenne that does...

Chemical mutagens such as sodium azide (NaN3) have been widely used to increase genetic variability in crops but the undirected mutations induced can have undesirable effects, which need to be characterized. This study investigated the effects of in vitro NaN3 (0 - 0.45 mM) exposure (30 d) on the micropropagation of sugarcane within temporary immer...

Crop yield stability requires an attenuation of the reduction of yield losses caused by environmental stresses such as drought. Using a combination of metabolomics and high-throughput colorimetric assays, we analysed central metabolism and oxidative stress status in the flag leaf of 292 indica rice (Oryza sativa) accessions. Plants were grown in th...

Developing a mechanistic understanding of plant growth regulation requires studying cell division and cell expansion in addition to molecular studies. A recent time-lapse confocal microscopy study (Fox, S. et al. PLoS Biol. 2018:16;e2005952) quantifying these processes in individual cells in growing organs in combination with multiscale modeling pr...

Plant response to environmental stimuli involves integration of multiple signals. Upon low-oxygen stress, plants initiate a set of adaptive responses to circumvent an energy crisis. Here, we reveal how these stress responses are induced by combining (i) energy-dependent changes in the composition of the acyl-CoA pool and (ii) the cellular oxygen co...

The initial aim of this study was to evaluate an effect of elevated CO2 concentration and air temperature (future climate) and O3 pollution on mono- and mixed-culture grown summer rape (Brassica napus L.) and wild mustard (Sinapis arvensis L.). The second task was to reveal the mechanisms of the shift in plants’ competitiveness in response to singl...

Although cell number generally correlates with organ size, the role of cell cycle control in growth regulation is still largely unsolved. We studied kip related protein (krp) 4, 6 and 7 single, double and triple mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana to understand the role of cell cycle inhibitory proteins in leaf development. We performed leaf growth and...

Biotic interactions shape community evolution, but we lack mechanistic insights on how metabolic and ecological processes under climate change are altered by biotic interactions. We used a two-trophic model community consisting of the aphid Dysaphis plantaginea feeding on the forb Plantago lanceolata , and a grass competitor Lolium perenne that doe...

Diet quality may have an important effect on the regulation of oxidative status and the immune system during an infectious disease. However, the relationship among intake of specific dietary molecules, an individual’s oxidative status and the occurrence and progress of a viral disease remains almost unexplored in free‐living organisms. Here, we stu...

The frequency and intensity of climate extremes is increasing. We tested whether, and how such extremes induce transgenerational (adaptive) changes in plants. Arabidopsis (Col-0) plants (21 day old) were exposed to extreme temperature (9 days, 38 °C). The most resistant individuals were selected for three generations and compared to non-heat treate...

Cadmium (Cd) is well known to inhibit vegetative plant growth. However, knowledge regarding its influence on the cell cycle is scarce and mainly limited to cell cultures and root tissue. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Cd exposure on cell division and endoreduplication in Arabidopsis thaliana leaves. In order...

Most of the studies regarding the impact of ocean acidification on macroalgae have been carried out for short-term periods, in controlled laboratory conditions, thus hampering the possibility to scale up the effects on long-term. In the present study, the volcanic CO2 vents off Ischia Island were used as a natural laboratory to investigate the meta...

The flame retardant, 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene 10-oxide (DOPO), has been receiving great interest given its superior fire protection properties, and its predicted low level of persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity. However, empirical toxicological data that is essential for a complete hazard assessment is severly lacking. In th...

Plant scientists usually record several indicators in their abiotic factor experiments. The common statistical management involves univariate analyses. Such analyses generally create a split picture of the effects of experimental treatments since each indicator is addressed independently. The Euclidean distance combined with the information of the...

As a consequence of global change processes, plants will be increasingly challenged by extreme climatic events, against a background of elevated atmospheric CO2. We analysed responses of Arabidopsis thaliana to a combination of heat wave and water deficit at ambient and elevated CO2, and provided mechanistic insight on changes in primary metabolism...

Table S3 List of E2F/DP targets that were specifically up‐regulated at the TZ1 by mild drought stress.

Data S1 Details of the microarray analysis.

Table S1 The differentially expressed transcripts along the leaf gradient in the merged well‐watered and non‐transgenic GA20OX‐1 OE control data set.

Table S2 The specifically differentially expressed transcripts in GA20OX‐1 OE transgenic plants under drought conditions.

Stroke represents one of the first causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. We evaluated the therapeutic potential of a novel semi-synthetic spirosteroid sapogenin derivative "S15" in a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) focal ischemia model in rat. S15-treated rats had significantly reduced infarct volumes and improved neurolog...

Simulation has become an important tool for studying plant physiology. An important aspect of this is discovering the processes that influence leaf growth at a cellular level. To this end, we have extended an existing, morphogen-based model for the growth of Arabidopsis leaves. We have fitted parameters to match important leaf growth properties rep...

There is a great demand of salt-tolerant sugarcane planting material in Cuba. Temporary immersion bioreactors (TIB) are effective to significantly increase sugarcane in vitro shoot proliferation rate from 1:4 in conventional containers to about 1:35. Sugarcane micropropagation in TIBs under NaCl stress may help screen mutants with salinity toleranc...

Effects of salinity (NaCl) and the carbon source mannitol (0–200 mM) on micropropagation of pineapple cv. MD2 were analyzed in temporary immersion bioreactors (TIBs). Shoot multiplication rate, shoot cluster fresh weight and levels of aldehydes, chlorophylls, carotenoids and phenolics were determined in the plant material. The content of soluble ph...

Tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) is a pervasive flame retardant that has been identified as a chemical of concern given its health effects and therefore its use has since been tightly regulated. Tris(2-chloroisopropyl) phosphate (TCIPP), an analogue of TCEP, is believed to be its replacement. However, compared to TCEP, little is known of the to...

Tris (2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (TBOEP) is a compound produced at high volume that is used as both a flame retardant and a plasticizer. It is persistent and bioaccumulative, yet little is known of its toxicological modes of action. Such insight may aid risk assessment in a weight-of-evidence approach supplementing current testing strategies. We used...