Review: The origin and evolution of mycorrhizal symbioses Many fungi are pathogens that kill or weaken their plant hosts. However, there are also many species that form beneficial relationships with plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. One of these mutualisms is the mycorrhizal association between a fungus and a plant root, where the fungus provides the plant […]
André N. Müller, featured first author of The Biotrophic Development of Ustilago maydis Studied by RNA-Seq Analysis Current Position: Project Manager, GSK Vaccines GmbH, Marburg Education: PhD in Molecular Phytopathology, Department of Organismic Interactions, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany. Diploma in Biology at Technical University Kaiserslautern, Germany. Non-scientific Interests: Cooking, reading, mountain […]
By Johanna Krahmer, Ashwin Ganpudi, Ammad Abbas, Andrés Romanowski, and Karen J. Halliday Plants continuously monitor fluctuations in their environment and actively adjust their metabolism to cope with variations in light and carbon resource availability. However, the links between photoreceptor signaling pathways and central metabolism are poorly understood. Emerging evidence suggests that phytochrome photoreceptor signaling […]
By Daniel Cosgrove The primary wall of a growing cell is a versatile, subtle, and dynamic structure, with unique properties and functions in the life of the plant (Burton et al., 2010). When a cell grows, its wall stretches irreversibly as the cell enlarges in volume. Cells can start and stop this process quickly, in […]
By Matthew J. Paul, Asier Gonzalez-Uriarte, Cara A. Griffiths, and Keywan Hassani-Pak Significant increases in global food security require improving crop yields in favourable and poor conditions alike. However, it is challenging to increase both the crop yield potential and yield resilience simultaneously, since the mechanisms that determine productivity and stress tolerance are typically inversely […]
Nobody doubts the great insights we have gained about plant diversity and evolution from genome sequencing, but the patchy nature of available genomes within the plant phylogeny remains a problem. Cheng et al. describe the 10KP (10,000 Plants) Genome Sequencing Project, which aims to sequence genomes from every major clade of plants (and protists) within […]
The carbon-fixing enzyme Rubisco (Ribulose‐1,5‐bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) is much-maligned and has been described as “sluggish” and with “confused specificity”. In this new Review, Bathellier et al. argue that it is “not really so bad”. Their reasoning is that when Rubisco’s catalytic properties are compared to enzymes with related catalytic activities and in relevant physiological conditions, it […]
Following up on earlier studies in which they introduced cyanobacterial Rubisco into tobacco, Lin and Hanson endeavoured to introduce into tobacco Rubisco genes from a red alga, which has an unusually high CO2/O2 specificity. Although they were able to demonstrate the presence of the genes and their transcription, the enzyme failed to accumulate, suggesting a […]
Polyamines, which include putrescine [NH2(CH2)4NH2], spermidine [NH2(CH2)4NH(CH2)3NH2], and spermine [NH2(CH2)3NH(CH2)4NH(CH2)3NH2], are widespread in nature. Although their mechanisms of action remain largely unresolved, they have demonstrated roles in plants ranging from abiotic stress tolerance to fruit ripening. Guo, Wang et al. examined the contributions of polyamines to strawberry fruit ripening. They showed that spermidine levels increase […]