In this excellent review, Lavarenne et al. provide an accessible introduction to the tools and objectives of gene regulatory network (GRN) analysis. They include a glossary, show diagrams displaying different stages of GRN analysis, and provide links to key papers in which different methods have been applied to plant science. This article is recommended reading […]
Plants make some amazing biologically active natural products, many with impressive applications such as vinblastine, a product of Catharantus roseus (Madagascar periwinkle). Caputi et al. identified key enzymes in vinblastine synthesis, opening the door for its production in alternative systems and the production of derivative compounds. It’s an interesting story of false-starts, unstable intermediates and […]
Review: Same tune, different song — cytokinins as virulence factors in plant–pathogen interactions? Many pathogens produce virulence factors that improve their pathogenicity, including in some cases compounds produced by the host, such as the hormone cytokinin. Spallek et al. review the various plant pathogens — spanning from bacteria to parasitic plants — that use cytokinins […]
Seeds are hugely important, providing the opportunity for reproductive dormancy in seed-bearing plants and as a nutrient-dense food source for animals. Seed development involves the formation of three genetically distinct tissues, the embryo, seed coat and endosperm. Although normally dependent on fertilization by pollen, through the process of apomixis sometimes seeds can form in the […]
We often hear that auxin controls plant growth. In a special issue of Current Biology focused on membranes, Béziat and Kleine-Vehn observe that due to its role in controlling the distribution of auxin transporters (and therefore auxin), it is also reasonable to say that vesicle trafficking controls plant growth. The authors demonstrate the significance of […]
A protein’s function and localization are often studied by fusing to it a small “tag” to enhance visualization (through the tag’s fluorescence or antibodies that recognize the tag). These tags are often assumed to have little effect on the protein of interest, but as Hurst et al. show using several different tags fused to the […]
Wang et al. analyse data from the 3000 rice (Oryza sativa) genome (3K-RG) project, identifying “29 million single nucleotide polymorphisms, 2.4 million small indels and over 90,000 structural variations”. The data of course strongly support the two major rice types (Indica and Japonica), but also reveal a total of nine subpopulations. The authors use these […]
Most students learn that metabolism does not increase at the same rate as an animal’s size – an elephant eats much less per unit of body mouse than a mouse does. This non-linear scaling, described through metabolic scaling theory, also occurs in plants – the growth rate of large plants is relatively slower than that […]
Review: A newly proposed plastid: the xyloplast ($) In its simplest definition, a plastid is an organelle that manufactures and stores essential chemical compounds used by its host cell. Numerous plastids exist beyond the familiar chloroplast. Chromoplasts synthesise and store carotenoid pigments, and provide their hosts with district yellow, orange or red colouring, while amyloplasts […]