By now, you would think we’d know everything about cellulose, given its status as the most abundant biopolymer on Earth and its simple chemical composition. Cellulose is composed of β-1,4-D-glucose units assembled into straight chain polymers. These rod-like molecules are packed into strong microfibrils held tightly together by hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces. […]
Baggs et al. look for key immune genes bases on their presence/absence patterns in different plant species. The Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00903 by Erin Baggs, University of California, Berkeley, USA Ruby O’Grady, The John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK Background: Plants are constantly battling microbes that cause disease whilst in their natural habitats. […]
During development, seeds pack away large amounts of storage nutrients in the form of starch, proteins, and lipids (typically triacylglycerides), but the ratios of these storage products vary tremendously between seed types. Because of the obvious agricultural implications, researchers have long sought ways to manipulate the partitioning of resources imported from the maternal plant in […]
Rolletschek et al. examine the role of cellular plasticity in oil-protein balancing. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00879 By Hardy Rolletschek and Ljudmilla Borisjuk Leibniz Inst Plant Genet & Crop Plant Res (IPK) Gatersleben, Germany Background: Seeds of some crops like canola/rapeseed are capable of accumulating storage oils and proteins—both of which are valuable products used for human […]
MYB proteins are a group of transcription factors that are highly conserved in all vertebrates and were first implicated in avian myeloblastosis (leukemia). Subsequently, they were shown to be cellular proto-oncogenes that regulate production of blood cells in animals. MYB proteins contain a DNA-binding MYB domain, which consists of one or more imperfect repeats of […]
Flütsch et al. examine how starch degradation and light-regulated membrane transport control stomatal opening kinetics. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.00802 By Sabrina Flütsch and Diana Santelia Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland Background: Stomatal opening is driven by the blue light-activated H+-ATPase (AHA1) at the guard cell plasma membrane, which hyperpolarizes the plasma membrane causing […]
Translation of RNA information into protein is a fundamental process ensuring the production of functional proteins in cells. Transfer RNA (tRNA) is a vital component of the translation machinery as it delivers the correct amino acids to the elongating peptide chain based on codon-anticodon recognition. tRNAs are extensively modified at various sites, greatly contributing to […]
Yan et al. discovered that MYB30, an R2R3-MYB family transcription factor, is a negative regulator of Arabidopsis photomorphogenic development and promotes PIF4 and PIF5 accumulation under prolonged red light irradiation. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00645 By Yan Yan and Jigang Li, China Agricultural University) Background: The red (600-700 nm) and far-red (700-750 nm) light components of sunlight […]
Michael J. Skelly [email protected] To ensure optimal growth and development, plants must precisely control gene expression networks in a tissue-specific manner. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally silence genes by binding to complementary sequences in target mRNAs. Many land plant miRNA–target relationships have been strongly conserved throughout evolution due […]