Setting and Diffusing the Cyanide Bomb in Plant Defense
Plant Physiology, Plant Physiology: News and ViewsHydrogen cyanide (HCN) is a potent inhibitor of cytochrome c oxidase, a conserved component of the respiratory electron transport chain in all aerobic life. Thus, HCN is well suited to serve as a broad-spectrum chemical defense, and indeed it plays such a role in many interactions between plants and…
Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Xiaoyue Wang
Plant Physiology, Plant Physiology: Author ProfilesXiaoyue Wang, first author of Genetic dissection of Fe-dependent signaling in root developmental responses to phosphate deficiency
Current Position: Ph.D. candidate in School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Education: B.S., School of Life Sciences at Shandong University,…
Recognizing Plant Cell first authors: Rob Schaefer
The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: Author ProfilesRob Schaefer, first author of Integrating co-expression networks with GWAS to prioritize causal genes in maize
Current Position: Postdoctoral Associate, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota
Education: 2015 - Ph.D., Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology, University of…
Review: Single-particle tracking for the quantification of membrane protein dynamics in living plant cells (Mol. Plant)
Plant Science Research WeeklyReal-time tracking is a hugely powerful way to understand the behaviour of single proteins. Cui et al. review the methods and applications of single-particle tracking (SPT) in plant cells. They describe the applications of variable-angle total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (VA-TIRFM) to…
Heterohexamers formed by CcmK3 and CcmK4 increase the complexity of beta carboxysome shells (Plant Physiol)
Plant Science Research WeeklyCarboxysomes are protein-bound microcompartments of cyanobacteria that sequester Rubisco and carbonic anhydrase (which converts bicarbonate to carbon dioxide), thus enhancing Rubisco’s carboxylation efficiency. The carboxysome shell is made up of hexamer, pentamer and trimer modules, with selectively…
Aphid-borne viral spread is enhanced by virus-induced accumulation of plant reactive oxygen species (Plant Physiol)
Plant Science Research WeeklyAphids are major vectors for viral spread. Guo et al. have identified an interesting interaction that affects aphid feeding behavior and viral spread. They showed that reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in plants infected with cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) affects aphid feeding behavior; specifically,…
Major domestication-related phenotypes in indica rice are due to loss of miRNA-mediated laccase silencing (Plant Cell)
Plant Science Research WeeklyRice (Oryza sativa) is derived from breeding of perennial wild ancestors with long stalks and few seeds to short plants with enlarged panicles (inflorescences). Many known domestication changes are due to changes in transcription factors or modulation of enzymatic actions. Recent work by Swetha et al.…
Contribution of epigenetic variation to adaptation in Arabidopsis (Nature Comms)
Plant Science Research WeeklyIt is known that changes in the epigenetic state can be inherited, but whether the epigenetic changes are subject to natural selection is uncharted territory. Schmid et al. examined the phenomic and epigenomic changes in Arabidopsis accessions that underwent selection to simulated habitat fragmentation.…
Microbial interkingdom interactions in roots promote Arabidopsis survival (Cell)
Plant Science Research WeeklyPlant roots in soil are surrounded by different microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and oomycetes. The impact of these organisms on plant health has been known f0r many decades. However, the interaction network between these organisms is not well understood. By using next generation sequencing as…