Archive: July, 2024

Vascular cambium cells are meristematic cells responsible for secondary growth. Lineage tracing studies in Arabidopsis and poplar show the presence of single bifacial stem cells in each radial cell file that produce xylem inwards and phloem cells outwards. In a recent review, Wybouw et al. discuss the…

There is increasing evidence that silicon (Si) application to soils or leaves can promote plant growth through various means, including enhancing tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses, but the mechanisms of this growth promotion are not always clear. Here, Bardhan et al. review how Si can promote…

Genome editing stands at the forefront of scientific innovation, offering transformative possibilities to manipulate the genetic code of plants, animals, and humans. A critical bottleneck for its application in modern crop improvement is the low frequency and error-prone integration of foreign DNA into…

Activation domains (AD) are parts of transcription factor proteins (TFs) that bind the transcriptional machinery (coactivator complexes) and lead to transcriptional activation. However, identifying ADs is challenging because they are often part of intrinsically disordered regions, which lack a defined…

Recently, we have gained tremendous insights through live-cell imaging using fluorescent tags that bind specifically to various cellular components. Here, Besten et al. present a new set of cell wall-specific tags that bind specifically to cell walls and reveal selected wall properties. The authors developed…

Pyrenoids are structures that concentrate carbon dioxide around Rubisco, most commonly studied in green algae such as Chlamydomonas. However, hornworts, one of the three types of bryophytes (along with liverworts and mosses) also have a pyrenoid-based CO2-concentrating mechanism (pCCM), unique among…

For hundreds of years, we have propagated plants clonally by grafting, i.e. the union of a scion and a rootstock to form a new plant. To be successful, a graft junction must heal: tissues must attach, and vascular bundles reconnect, in a process known to involve auxin. Here, Serivichyasw at et al. investigate…

Number of tillers is one of the major determinants of yield in rice. MONOCULM1 (MOC1) and MOC3 have been reported to regulate tiller formation by promoting axillary bud formation and elongation of buds. MOC1 interacts with MOC3 and promotes the expression of FLORAL ORGAN NUMBER 1 (FON1), which increases…