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 3D structure and conserved sequence motifs. In this paper, Morffy and colleagues adressed this challenge […]
Plant nutrient use efficiency (NUE) has become a major concern in recent years as farmers and scientists strive to make agriculture more sustainable. To this end, the manipulation of plant-microbe interactions holds great potential. In this short review, Griffin et al. highlight recent findings, focusing on two approaches aimed at increasing NUE by acting on […]
Polycarpic perennials, as opposed to annual plants, flower multiple times over several growing seasons throughout their lifecycle. To do that, they must retain a vegetative meristem that does not produce flowers during the reproductive phase. MADS-box transcription factors like FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) contribute to this process by repressing the floral transition in the meristem. […]
Polyploidy, arising from whole-genome duplication, is a common phenomenon in plant species. However, newly formed polyploids are often infertile and the mechanism(s) by which they adapt to their new karyotypes remain unclear. In this article, Westermann and colleagues chemically induced the formation of tetraploid Arabidopsis arenosa plants from diploid parents. They found that the lower […]
Targeting a given protein for degradation at a specific time can be very useful when investigating its function in the cellular context. In this paper, Huang et al. present an inducible protein degradation system tailored for plants, named E3-DART. The system is based on the specific interaction between the type III bacterial effector Salmonella-specific protein […]
The establishment of adaxial-abaxial polarity during the growth of the leaf primordium is a prerequisite for the formation of the flat, thin leaves observed in most (but not all) plants. The micro-RNAs tasiARF and miR165/6, which form concentration gradients within leaf primordia, are major contributors to the formation of the adaxial and the abaxial domains, […]