Entries by Linda Palmer

In the Cold of the Night: how COR27 Regulates HY5 Activity and Integrates Light and Circadian Signals

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Zhu et al. discover that the COR27 protein interacts with the central regulators of light-mediated development COP1 and HY5 and plays a critical role in hypocotyl elongation. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00192 By Wei Zhu (Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China) and Dongqing Xu (Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China) Background: Light and the circadian clock […]

An Alternative Route for Astaxanthin Biosynthesis in Green Algae

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Tianhu Sun ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2513-1387 Plant Breeding and Genetics Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 [email protected] Astaxanthin is the reddish carotenoid pigment that gives color to shrimp, salmon, and flamingo. However, these animals don’t synthesize astaxanthin by themselves. Instead, microalgae are the initial producers of astaxanthin in nature. Because […]

Towards Uncovering the Developmental Mechanisms of Elaborate Petals: Nigella damascena as a Beginning

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Zhang et al. explore the mechanisms underlying elaborate petal development and specialized character formation in Nigella damascena. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00330 By Rui Zhang, Xuehao Fu, Caiyao Zhao, Jie Cheng, Hongyan Shan, and Hongzhi Kong Background: Petals can be simple or elaborate, depending on whether they have modifications along their margins or on their adaxial/abaxial side, […]

Interactions between exocyst and SNARE vesicle trafficking machinery support plant growth

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Larson et al. examine the interactions between subunits of the exocyst and SNARE complex and the effects of these interactions on trafficking, secretion, and growth. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00280   Emily R Larson1,3, Jitka Ortmannová2,4, Naomi A Donald1, Jonas Alvim1, Michael R Blatt1 and Viktor Žárský2 1 Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biophysics, Bower Building, University […]

SnRK1-ZmRFWD3-Opaque2: A Nexus of Seed Nutrient Accumulation and Diurnal Cycles

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Plant seeds store nutrients in the form of protein, starch, and oil to support seed germination and seedling establishment. The seed nutrient reserves are supplied with carbon and nitrogen assimilated in vegetative tissues, where primary metabolism oscillates in a circadian manner (Farré and Weise, 2012). However, whether the nutrient accumulation in developing seeds is also […]

Trapped In the Rhizosheath: Root-Bacterial Interactions Modulate Ethylene Signaling

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Author: Sjon Hartman 1,2 ORCID: 0000-0002-6709-6436 1 Plant Ecophysiology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands 2 Corresponding author contact: [email protected] Even moderate droughts can greatly limit plant performance and reduce agricultural yield. Plants have evolved a wide range of traits to acclimate to drought (Yordanov et al., 2000), […]

Rhythms in the dark: how endosperm responds to daylight cycles

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Li et al. discover a diurnal pattern in sucrose content in developing maize endosperm that relies on the action of an E3 ubiquitin ligase on the master regulator transcription factor Opaque2. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00352 By Chaobin Li, Zeyang Ma, Rentao Song, China Agricultural University Background: Circadian rhythms allow plants to synchronize their physiology and biochemistry […]

The rhythm of the light: how light and the clock drive cycling of transcript levels in barley

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Circadian rhythms are ubiquitous among living things. A core set of so-called clock genes and their products assemble an oscillatory network that provides a rhythm to anticipate dawn and dusk (Hsu and Harmer, 2014). The circadian clock regulates the day/night rhythms of plants and light itself has many ways of feeding information into the functioning […]

The Multifaceted Roles of UPF1 in Gene Regulation

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Raxwal et al. uncover the roles of the RNA helicase and ATPase UPF1 in regulating gene expression. The Plant Cell (2020) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00244   By Vivek K. Raxwal and Karel Riha  CEITEC Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic   Background: Gene expression, i.e., the formation of functional proteins based on information encoded in genomes, is a multistep […]