Climate change is a major threat to potato, as high temperatures inhibit tuberization and reduce yield. A recent study by Yeo and colleagues screened for heat-tolerance in offspring from one tolerant and one sensitive parent potato cultivar. SELF-PRUNING 6A (SP6A), encoding a phloem-mobile tuberization signal, was upregulated in heat-tolerant offspring, which formed tubers earlier than […]
Plants store glucose polymers in semicrystalline starch granules. Starch debranching enzymes, including isoamylases (ISAs), are involved in maintaining starch’s crystalline organization. In maize, sugary1 (su1) mutants with impaired ISA1 enzymatic activity accumulate soluble polyglucan chains (phytoglycogen). Unlike ISA1, ISA2 is enzymatically inactive. However, it remains selected for in plants, and is structurally conserved including an […]
Nicotiana benthamiana is widely used to reconstruct complex, multi-step metabolic pathways for research or industrial purposes. This is enabled by rapid and high-level protein expression after agroinfiltration. Within cells, as well as membrane-bound organelles, nonmembrane-bound biomolecular condensates can spontaneously form with high concentrations of specific proteins and biochemicals. Battle et al. used the disordered RGG […]
Plant metabolism varies substantially between developmental stages, cell types, and intracellular environments. Similarly, biochemical responses to abiotic stress often deviate between neighboring cell types, but discerning what is changing where becomes more challenging in smaller and more fragile sub-compartments. Seydel et al. investigated how carbohydrate metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana changed in response to 7 days […]
A pan-genome has been assembled for the Solanum genus, which contains many diverse and economically important crops including potato, tomato, and African eggplant. Genomes were assembled for 22 species, and genes were predicted based on previous reference genomes and from RNA sequences across multiple tissues. Approximately 60% of genes were the core genome (found in […]
Up to 40% of harvested broccoli never reaches consumers due to quality losses during senescence, including yellowing and nutrient degradation. Reactive oxygen species cause oxidative stress within the plant, accelerating these negative changes through the jasmonate (JA) pathway. Gage et al. investigated if oxidative hormesis, where a mild activation of the stress-response pathway improves the […]
Starch is the major storage carbohydrate in plants, and in Arabidopsis leaves it forms granules in the chloroplasts to supply energy during the night when photosynthesis is inactive. These semicrystalline granules are made of glucose chains, which can be mostly unbranched (amylose) or highly branched (amylopectin). The formation of new starch granules (initiation) is achieved […]
Starch is the major storage carbohydrate in plants and is organised into semicrystalline granules. The size, shape, and composition of these granules greatly affects how they are digested, and which industrial applications they are suitable for. Therefore, the enzymes controlling starch synthesis are incredibly valuable targets for breeders, despite being poorly understood outside of the […]