Progression of the cell cycle central to growth, but during stress conditions plants arrest cell cycle progression to enable the organism to survive. SUPPRESSOR OF GAMMA RESPONSE 1 (SOG1), a plant-specific NAC-type transcription factor, regulates the expression of almost all genes induced by double-strand breaks (DSBs) and consequently arrests the cell cycle in G2. Takahashi […]
MEcPP, methylerythritol cyclophosphate, is an essential bifunctional plastidial metabolite that serves as a precursor of isoprenoids and is produced by the plastidial methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway. Jiang et al. demonstrated that MEcPP controls adaptive growth by regulating auxin responses at transcriptional and post-transcriptional stages. They used the ceh1 (constitutively expression HPL) mutant, which accumulates MEcPP […]
About you Describe your journey from student to newly appointed faculty I grew up in country side during my childhood and schooling. I graduated from University of Pune, India with a degree in Biochemistry. I then moved to Japan and started my PhD with D. Setsuyuki Aoki at Nagoya University, Japan where I worked on […]
The apical hook helps to protect the fragile cotyledons and shoot apical meristem while pushing through the soil, and hook angle determines the success of emergence from soil. Multiple hormones and light signals have contrasting roles in the regulation of hook formation; e.g., auxin, ethylene and gibberellic acid (GA) act as positive regulators whilst jasmonic […]
Dandelions, perennial herbs from temperate zones, have the capacity to spread their seeds through wind for distances as far as 1 km. Ignazio Maria Viola and Naomi Nakayama with their team endeavored to understand this passive flight mechanism. They analyzed the flight mechanism of the dandelion by characterizing the fluid dynamics of the pappus (thread-like […]
Plants perceive blue light through cryptochrome (CRY) photoreceptors that are responsible for photomorphogenesis, flowering, and circadian rhythms. At the same time, brassinosteroid (BR) represses photomorphogenesis. In this article, Wang et al. demonstrated CRY1-mediated inhibition of BR signaling as a potential mechanism. In dark conditions, inactivated CRY1 does not interact with dephosphorylated BES1 (BRI1-EMS SUPPRESSOR1), a […]
Plants perceive the change of seasons based on measuring the duration of daylight. Flowering is a major seasonal response that depends on photoperiod. In this study, Seaton et al. looked at the role of phytochrome A (phyA) in photoperiod sensing. PHYA is the direct target of PIF4 and PIF5 transcription factors. PHYA transcript abundance is […]
Auxin is involved in a diverse array of developmental processes as well as biotic and abiotic stress responses. The chemical–genetic approach is a powerful tool to decipher the auxin signaling pathway. In this review, Fukui and Hayashi have provided a comprehensive overview about the structure, molecular targets, comparative activity and application of small molecules used […]
Kiyoshi et al. investigated auxin biosynthesis during the formation of crown galls by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Agrobacterium introduces into the plant T-DNA containing two auxin biosynthesis genes iaaM (TRYPTOPHAN-2-MONOOXYGENASE) and iaaH (INDOLE-3-ACETAMIDE HYDROLASE). The authors used LC-MS/MS to show that the level of IAM (indole-3-acetamide), IAA (indole-3-acetic acid), PAM (phenylacetamide), PAA (phenylacetic acid) and related metabolites […]