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 […]
The root epidermis presents an elegant model to study cell differentiation. Based on positional cues, Arabidopsis distinguishes two epidermal cell types. Cells in the H position, adjacent to the junction of two cortex cells, have the capacity of developing root hair identity, whereas the non-hair cells occupy the N positions and are in contact with […]
It might be a little known fact, even among plant biologists, that in embryos of many species of the Fabaceae, most oilseed plants and Arabidopsis thaliana embryos can photosynthesize within the seed (Tejos et al., 2010). We do not know why plant embryos have this capacity, since embryos are surrounded by green photosynthetic tissue and […]
Plant cell walls provide mechanical support to plant cells, determine their size and shape, and influence plant development and stress responses. The plant cell wall is composed mainly of polysaccharides, including cellulose, hemicellulose and pectins, with smaller amounts of phenolic polymers and proteins embedded in the polysaccharide matrix. Many of these polysaccharides are O-acetylated, which […]
Descriptive paragraph. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00140 By Bing Wang and Qian Xu, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Background: Strigolactones (SLs) are carotenoid-derived plant hormones that control many aspects of plant development, such as shoot branching, internode elongation, leaf shape, root growth, anthocyanin accumulation, hypocotyl elongation and adaptive growth under diverse environments. […]
Decades of research in evolutionary genetics has shown that genomic plasticity, in particular variation in gene copy number, is a favored mechanism to provide rapid adaptation to adverse environmental conditions through increase in gene dosage. Gene amplification has been observed across kingdoms and often is supported by the accumulation of extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA), ranging […]
Lunin et al. describe a structural and biochemical analysis of the enzyme XOAT1, responsible for the acetylation of the cell wall component xylan, with potential applications in cell wall modification for better biomass valorization. The Plant Cell (2020) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00028 By Vivek Bharadwaj, Markus Alahuhta, Vladimir V. Lunin, Hsin-Tzu Wang Background: Xylan is an integral […]
Magdalena M. Julkowska, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, ORCID: 0000-0002-4259-8296 [email protected] Water transport is essential for many physiological processes in vascular plants. One of the forces driving water transport across roots is provided by the tension created by transpiration from the shoot, which extends to the root xylem. On the […]
Dhineshkumar Thiruppathi 1,2 ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2018-3356 Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Saint Louis, Missouri 63132 1Lead author 2Author for contact: [email protected] Potassium (K+) is the most abundant intracellular cation in all living organisms and is an important macronutrient for plant growth and development, contributing up to 10% of plant dry weight. K+ plays critical […]