Entries by Linda Palmer

A closed mouth catches no pathogens: how plants sense bacteria and regulate stomata

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Chan, Panzeri, et al. show how a receptor-like kinase regulates stomatal immunity by phosphorylating an anion channel that mediates closure of stomata. Plant Cell. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00578  By Ching Chana,b and Laurent Zimmerlia aDepartment of Life Science and Institute of Plant Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan. bAgricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan. […]

Life is Sweeter with Trehalose 6-Phosphate

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Besides making our daily lives sweeter, sugars are the most important energy source in all organisms. Balancing their availability and regulating their partitioning between tissues are major determinants for growth and development. In plants, sucrose is the main product of photosynthesis and is transported from source to sink organs through the phloem. Sucrose levels are […]

Closing Gaps and Opening New Avenues During Megasporogenesis of Rice

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The formation of the mature female gametophyte is one of the most complex processes in plants. It requires successive rounds of diploid mitosis, followed by meiosis and finally haploid mitosis, not to mention cell differentiation and cell degeneration in the multicellular gametophyte. Since the female gametophyte number and fertility directly affect seed yield and plant […]

The Basis of Glyphosate Resistance in Palmer Amaranth

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Molin et al. describe the sequence and gene organization of an extrachromosomal circular DNA element, the eccDNA replicon, that confers resistance to the herbicide glyphosate in amaranths. The Plant Cell (2020) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00099 By William Molin a and Christopher Saski b, a USDA-ARS, Crop Protection Systems Research Unit, Stoneville, MS; b Clemson University, Department of Plant […]

Role of DnaK-DnaJ proteins in PSII repair

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Ananya Mukherjee ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1802-1806 [email protected] University of Nebraska Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588   Climate change is expected to make drought far more severe and frequent for plants all over the world (Bartlett et al., 2016). Drought affects yield, growth, and development of plants.  Photosynthesis is particularly sensitive to drought stress, and when its efficiency […]

A Chloroplast tRNA-Modifying Enzyme Functions in Plant Development

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Liu, Ren et al. discover how a natural allele of tRNA-modifying GTPase gene PDD leads to pleiotropic developmental defects in rice. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00660.  By Hui Liu and Pingli Lu Fudan University and Henan University  Background: Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are components of the translational machinery that deliver amino acids to the protein elongation chain by […]

From Fuzziness to Clarity: Regulation of DRP5B Ring Dynamics at the Chloroplast Division Site

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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] Plant cells harbor a varying number of chloroplasts and chloroplasts multiply by division to maintain the continuity of chloroplasts. Chloroplast division is performed by the constriction of two self-assembling GTPase rings in the […]

Seed-Specific Saponin Biosynthesis in Medicago

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Ribeiro, Lacchini et al. discover a seed-specific transcription factor that helps determine the composition of the defense compounds saponins in developing Medicago truncatula seeds. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00609  By Elia Lacchini, Alain Goossens, and Jacob Pollier VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University, 9052 Ghent, Belgium.  Background: Plants are constantly confronted by a variety of threats, […]

Cell Wall Remodeling During Wood Development

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Madeleine Seale Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RB, United Kingdom [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-8924-3943 Wood formation occurs via radial proliferation of vascular cambium cells and the deposition of secondary cell wall layers (Déjardin et al., 2010). This is crucially important for the mechanical stability of the plant and also […]