Entries by Linda Palmer

Energy vs growth: Plant nutritional decisions are made by TOR

O’Leary et al. show that the TOR signalling pathway in plants responds to amino acid levels by eliciting regulatory effects on respiratory energy metabolism at night, uniting a hallmark mechanism of TOR regulation across eukaryotes. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00157 By Brendan O’Leary and Harvey Millar Background: Plant leaves have two main energy-generating metabolic systems, photosynthesis and […]

Taking Down Plant Communication Channels to Invade

Aung et al. reveal that pathogenic bacteria target plant plasmodesmata to colonize and invade surrounding tissues. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00707 By Kyaw Aung and Sheng Yang He   Background: Multicellular organisms like animals and plants host a multitude of microorganisms. Although most microbes are beneficial or harmless to their hosts, infections caused by pathogenic microorganisms can […]

AvrRpm1, a 28-year Old Mystery Solved

Reddit et al. show that an effector protein from a pathogen modifies a host factor by ADP ribosylation, thereby activating defenses. The Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00020  Background: To protect themselves against disease, plants employ a family of intracellular receptors called disease resistance (R) proteins. Most R proteins function by monitoring the status of other plant proteins […]

How To Identify Autophagy Modulators

Author: Masanori Izumi Affiliation: RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Wako 351-0198, Japan [email protected] Autophagy is the ubiquitous process in eukaryotes leading to the degradation of intracellular components, during which a portion of the cytoplasm, including organelles, is sequestered by nascent autophagic membranes and delivered into the lytic organelles for degradation (Mizushima and Komatsu, 2011). […]

Personal Trainer: bHLH121 Functions Upstream of a Transcriptional Network of Heavy Lifters Involved in Balancing Iron Levels

Iron is a cofactor of numerous plant proteins that function in processes ranging from redox reactions during photosynthesis to respiration. Typical soils contain approximately 1–5% iron, but much of this iron is not readily accessible to plants due to low solubility. Nongraminaceous plants help solubilize iron (Fe3+) in the soil by making the rhizosphere more […]

NTRC: a key regulatory hub in carbon metabolism and redox balance in developing tomato fruits

Maria Grazia Annunziata Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany. ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8593-1741 By acting as redox regulatory factor, NADPH-dependent thioredoxin reductase C (NTRC) is involved in many metabolic processes as well as plastid biogenesis. It is the only isoform, out of three, localized to chloroplasts. Arabidopsis thaliana NTRC has been extensively […]

How plants tolerate too-close vegetation – plants get tolerant to other plants

Molina-Contreras et al. show how differences in photoreceptors produce the differing shade responses of Arabidopsis and Cardamine. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00275  by Sandi PAULIŠIĆ 1 and Jaime F. MARTINEZ-GARCIA 1,2 1, Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB. 2, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA).  Background: Plant development is strongly influenced by the proximity of […]

A membrane-bound cellulase in time and space

Nagashima et al. investigate molecular mechanisms for the sorting of a membrane protein KORRIGAN 1 (KOR1) in plant cells. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00714 By Y. Nagashima1, and H. Koiwa1,2 1Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center and Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University 2Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences, Texas A&M University Background: KORRIGAN1 (KOR1) is a membrane-bound […]

WRKY1 integrates cellular nitrogen and light-energy resources in Arabidopsis thaliana

Tessa Moses The Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology (IQB3), The King’s Buildings, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected], ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9366-4727 WRKY1 is a member of the WRKY transcription factor family initially identified with roles in defense, but more recently shown to have diverse functions (Ülker and Somssich, 2004). […]