Recent Posts

The Trojan Horse Approach to Protein Jockeying

In the decades since Agrobacterium tumefaciens was first used as a vector to deliver genetic material into plants (Zambryski et al., 1983), this powerful tool has provided important insights into the biological functions of countless gene products. However, this approach has its shortcomings; in addition…

Review: The pivotal role of ethylene in plant growth (Trends Plant Sci)

Phytohormones, their ratios and gradients, regulate plant development to allow them to adapt to environment changes.  Ethylene, one such hormone, is produced in response to a multitude of stresses: biotic, osmotic, flooding, drought or even shading by neighbors. Dubois et al. report in this review how…

Ethylene receptors signal via a noncanonical pathway to regulate abscisic acid responses ($) (Plant Physiol.)

The two-carbon containing gaseous hydrocarbon, ethylene, is one of the most important phytohormones. It is perceived by a set of receptors (ETR1, ETR2, ERS, ERS2, EIN4). Bakshi et al. found that ETR1 (etr1-6) and ETR2 (etr2-3) mutants have opposite effects on seed germination in the presence of NaCl,…

Review: New tools and resources in metabolomics: 2016–2017 ($) (Electrophoresis)

Metabolomics, like the other high throughput omics platforms, provides a snapshot of  metabolites in response to a condition or in a cell, tissue, organ, or entire organism. In this review effort the author has cataloged all relevant tools, databases and softwares that were published in 2016-2017 for…

EIN3 and PIF3 form an interdependent module that represses chloroplast development in buried seedlings ($) (Plant Cell)

Photosynthesis is the fundamental process for plants to produce food. Beneath the soil there is an impairment of chloroplast development. In this article, Liu et al. identified that mechanical pressure works through the ethylene-responsive transcription factor EIN3, while light signaling is mediated…

A phosphoinositide map at the shoot apical meristem in Arabidopsis thaliana (BMC Biol.)

Plasma membrane lipids including phosphatidylinositol phosphates (PIPs) are often depicted as forming a featureless plane that serves mainly as a barrier, but in reality they show considerable spatial diversity. PIPs contribute to anchoring and positioning proteins and protein networks, so there is much…

LPCAT1 controls phosphate homeostasis in a zinc-dependent manner (eLIFE)

Phosphate availability is one of the main limiting factors for plant growth. Similarly, zinc deficiency represents a threat for agriculture and children nutrition and there is a complex interaction between phosphate and zinc nutrition. Kisko et al. investigate the interaction of phosphate and zinc nutrition…

Updates on Resources, Software Tools, and Databases for Plant Proteomics in 2016–2017 ($) (Electrophoresis)

Proteomics, like metabolomics research, depends on the mass-spectrometry tools.  Data processing, protein annotation, statistical and data analysis, as well as visualization are often the hurdles in obtaining meaningful biological insights from high throughput datasets. To this end, the author has summarized…

BES1 and BZR1 redundantly promote phloem and xylem differentiation ($) (Plant Cell Physiol.)

In vascular development, procambial or cambial cells differentiate into xylem and phloem. In this research article, by using VISUAL (Vascular cell Induction culture System Using Arabidopsis Leaves) system, Saito et al. identified BES1 (BRI1 EMS SUPPRESSOR 1) as one of the components required for xylem…