Signaling within and between cells is fast and dynamic. Such signals can involve the transport of charged ions that change membrane polarity or intercellular gradients, protein de/phosphorylation, protein interactions, and phytohormones, among others. The change in protein distribution in response to…

Organ boundaries are junctions that separate initiating lateral organs from the meristem or other plant parts. Cells at the boundary often exhibit slow growth rates and morphology distinct from that of the surrounding cells, and their development are controlled by complex gene networks. Lateral organ…

The lipidic phytohormone jasmonyl-isoleucine (JA-Ile) is a key mediator of stress-versus-growth signaling in vascular plants. Upon it’s accumulation, JA-Ile is detected by the F box receptor protein COI1 (CORONATINE INSENSITIVE1), which in turn leads to the ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation…

Gantner et al. establish N. benthamiana as a new system for analysis of immunity mediated by TIR-type immune receptors Plant Cell. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00099 By J. Gantner and J. Stuttmann   Background: Plant pathogenic bacteria inject effector proteins inside the plant cell during…

Not all mRNAs are translated equally. Between 25–50% of eukaryotic mRNAs have an upstream open reading frame (uORF) that affects translation of the main ORF (mORF). Usually the presence of an uORF inhibits translation, but under some conditions the ribosome can overlook the uORF or reinitiate translation…

Strigolactones are small signal molecules synthesized by plants. In the past few years, many studies highlighting the importance of this emerging phytohormone have been published. Strigolactones play important roles as a hormonal signals in plants and for mycorrhizal fungi interactions, they are present…

In most eukaryotic algae, carbon fixation takes place in an organelle within an organelle, the pyrenoid inside of the chloroplast. Besides being functionally very important, pyrenoids are interesting because they are what is called a phase-separated structure, that is they are not membrane enclosed;…

Frequently, research on root growth in Arabidopsis has been carried out in transparent Petri dishes, although in the natural environment the soil-buried root actually grows in complete darkness. It is an essential question to check if experimental results reflect the natural growth of plants. It is well-known…