Entries by Mary Williams

Do Lipid Droplets Exist in the Chloroplast Stroma?

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Understanding the metabolic pathways underlying oil production and the precise intracellular localization of lipid droplets is crucial for successfully engineering microalgae for biofuel production. The microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii accumulates considerable amounts of starch and triacylglycerol (TAG) under N deprivation or high-light stress conditions. Starch undoubtedly accumulates within the chloroplast, but controversy exists over the localization of […]

LYS12 LysM receptor decelerates Phytophthora palmivora disease progression in Lotus japonicus

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It might sound odd, but so far it was hard to find a nice pathogen infecting model legume plants. Fuechtbauer and colleagues showed the capacity of an oomycete (Phytophtora palmivora) to infect Lotus japonicus and describe how a LysM receptor, LYS12, is partly mediating this plant-microbe interaction. Usually, plant responses to pathogens depend on recognition […]

Sequestration and activation of plant toxins protect the western corn rootworm from enemies at multiple trophic levels

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Plants are attacked by diverse herbivores but have also evolved strategies to resist them. However, highly adapted herbivores exist, including those that have evolved the ability to stabilize, sequester and reactivate plant toxins. This evolved trait has contributed to herbivore defense against higher trophic level enemies. A clear ecological significance of this interaction is shown […]

Dual impact of elevated temperature on plant defense and bacterial virulence in Arabidopsis

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Huot et al. describe how elevated temperature (30 °C) enhances Arabidopsis thaliana disease susceptibility to the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pst DC3000): this includes an increase of bacterial type III secretion suggesting that increased Pst DC3000 virulence at 30°C is linked to increased translocation of bacterial effector proteins. The authors also found that […]

Different gene expression patterns in Arabidopsis grown under different densities

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When grown at high density (HD), plants compete for nutrients, water and light. Guo and collaborators characterized Arabidopsis gene expression under two different growth densities: seeds sown at low density (LD), 10 cm apart and high density (HD), 2 cm apart. RNA sequencing analysis showed that only 205 of 20,660 genes were influenced by growth […]

VERNALIZATION1 modulates root system architecture in wheat and barley

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Root angle determines the rooting depth and was recently associated with the VERNALIZATION1 locus. Using hexaploid wheat, Voss-Fels et al. mapped the root angle to the locus encoding the MADS-box transcription factor, which was previously associated with flowering time. The group found that the lines carrying spring allele of VRN1 produced deeper roots and had […]

Arabidopsis and crop plants differ in their 3D genome architecture ($)

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Three-dimensional organization of the genome is critical for proper gene expression. Comparison of the extremely compact genome of Arabidopsis with mammalian genomes revealed reduced local intra-chromosomal contacts (also know as Topologically Associated Domains, TADs) and fewer chromatin loops in the plant model. However, very little is known about spatial chromatin organization in plants with bigger […]

Patterns and consequences of subgenome differentiation provide insights into the nature of paleopolyploidy in plants

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Many plants are polyploid, meaning that instead of the normal, diploid “2n” complement of chromosomes (one from each parent), they have more than 2n. Following whole-genome duplication, redundancy can allow the duplicated regions to diverge or become silenced. In some cases, silencing occurs preferentially in one of the two parental genomes. By comparing the genomes […]

Increasing leaf vein density in rice results in an enhanced rate of photosynthesis

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Increased leaf vein density is considered to be a key early step in the evolution of C4 photosynthesis.  Feldman et al. analyzed five mutants with high vein densities in the C3 crop rice to determine if photosynthetic assimilation was improved.  The mutants all had higher photosynthetic rates under saturating light, while not showing any characteristics […]