Letters: Auxin and vesicle traffic Three letters to Plant Physiology address the role of vesicles in auxin transport, discussing the evidence and conclusions from a recently published paper from three perspectives. Does auxin accumulate in endocytic vesicles? If so, how, and why? The Letters address both the methods used and the intrepetation of the study’s […]
By Johan Ceuster and Bram Van de Poel Abstract The volatile plant hormone ethylene plays a regulatory role in many developmental processes and in biotic and abiotic stress responses. One of the under-explored actions of ethylene is its regulation of photosynthesis and associated components such as stomatal conductance, chlorophyll content, light reactions, carboxylation events, carbohydrate […]
Scientists find proteins important for plant development, DNA repair and gene targeting Freiburg, Mar 08, 2018 All living cells have invented mechanisms to protect their DNA against breaks during duplication and against damage by UV-light or chemicals. A team of biologists led by Prof. Dr. Ralf Reski from the Faculty of Biology of the University […]
Three years ago, biotechnologists demonstrated in field trials that they could increase the productivity of maize by introducing a rice gene into the plant that regulated the accumulation of sucrose in kernels and led to more kernels per maize plant. They knew that the rice gene affected the performance of a natural chemical in maize, […]
For most plants, becoming submerged under water can be lethal due to a restriction in gas exchange. One strategy for submergence tolerance is called an escape strategy, such as that employed by deepwater rice; the plant elongates rapidly to raise its leaves above the water level. Minami et al. used transcriptomics to further characterize the […]
Legumains are proteins identified first from legumes that have subsequently been identified in other organisms. They are also described as asparaginyl endopeptidases (AEPs) and vacuolar cysteine proteases or vacuolar processing enzymes. Enzymatically, legumains can express peptidase and peptide ligase activities, and have been demonstrated to contribute to the formation of cyclic peptides. Because of the […]
Small cyclic peptides are produced in many organisms; some are produced by ribosomes and others not. Fisher et al. explore a class of small cyclic peptides known as orbitides, which have been identified in plants of Asteroideae subfamily of the plant family Asteraceae. The fact that these are abundant in but restricted to a single […]
Although the reactions and enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of chlorophyll are well known, the entire pathway has never before been reconstituted in a non-photosynthetic organism. Chen et al. have done this. The cells (E. coli) expressing the full pathway accumulate chlorophyll and look green! However, they are not photosynthetic, as chlorophyll is just one […]
The application of nitrogen-containing fertilizers is crucial for good yields of crops like rice but also is energy intensive and polluting, so many approaches are being explored to develop plants that are more efficient in their uptake and use of nitrogen. Previous studies identified a crucial role of AtNRT1.1 (AtNPF6.3) as a nitrate sensor and […]