Entries by Mary Williams

A pair of papers that redefines the pyrenoid, the eukaryotic CO2-concentrating organelle

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Photosynthesis in aquatic organisms is made difficult due to the low solubility of CO2 in water. Algae such as Chlamydomonas rheinhardtii overcome this limitation through a carbon-concentrating organelle called a pyrenoid. Two papers in Cell redefine our understanding of the pyrenoid structure. Mackinder et al. (10.1016/j.cell.2017.08.044) tagged pyrenoid-localized proteins and examined their locations as well […]

Wounding triggers callus formation via dynamic hormonal and transcriptional changes

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Plants are known for their ability to regenerate tissues following wounding. Wound repair requires the induction of cell proliferation, leading to the formation of undifferentiated callus at the wound site, followed by cell differentiation. Ikeuchi et al. explored transcriptional changes following wounding damage to the hypocotyl, and through mutant analysis and measurement of hormones evaluated […]

Novel loci underlie natural variation in vitamin E levels in maize grain

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Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol and related tocochromanol compounds) is a lipid-soluble antioxidant that contributes to numerous cellular activities and confers protection against many diseases, from cancer to cardiovascular disease. The main sources of vitamin E for humans are plant oils, but most crop seeds produce tocopherols with only low vitamin E activity. The biosynthetic pathway of tocochromanols […]

Increasing atmospheric humidity and CO2 concentration alleviate forest mortality risk

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Liu et al. used models to predict the effects of climate change on tree mortality in 13 temperate and tropical forest biomes across the globe. When only increased temperature and changes in precipitation are considered, mortality increases in most biomes, with higher emissions models leading to increased mortality. However, when increases in CO2 concentration are […]

Atmospheric evidence for a global secular increase in carbon isotopic discrimination of land photosynthesis ($)

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Carbon exist in two stable isotopic forms; 99% as 12C and 1% as 13C. The carbon-fixing enzyme Rubisco preferentially fixes 12C, so fossil fuels are enriched for 12C, and since the industrial revolution the atmospheric 13C / 12C ratio has been increasing as the 12C-enriched fossil fuels are reconverted to CO2. Interestingly, measured data do […]

Coupling of pollination services and coffee suitability under climate change

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With changing climate, crops may need to be relocated to new regions for optimal growth temperatures or precipitation, but temperature and rainfall are not the sole influencers of productivity. Many crops, including coffee, depend on pollinators, which may or may not be available in other regions. Imbach et al. modelled future projections for both coffee-suitable […]

Nuclear transcriptomes at high resolution using retooled INTACT

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Reynoso et al. describe the Isolation of Nuclei from TAgged specific Cell Types (INTACT) in rice. In this method, modified from one described previously in Arabidopsis and tomato, nuclei are labeled with a biotinylated nuclear-envelope anchored protein. Best results were obtained when a rice WIP (WPP-Interacting protein) was fused to GFP and BLRP (biotin ligase […]

What We’re Reading: October 6th

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Special Issue: Plant evolutionary developmental biology (Plant Evo-Devo) ($) This issue is rooted in the 37th New Phytologist Symposium on ‘Plant developmental evolution’, 2016, that gathered researchers working on the developing field of plant evo-devo. The issue is a wonderful compendium of work presented during the symposium and the contribution of other researchers working in […]

SIEVE ELEMENT-LINING CHAPERONE 1 restricts aphid feeding on Arabidopsis during heat stress ($)

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Aphids are major pests that damage plants by sucking out phloem sap and as by acting as vectors in transmission of more than 300 different viruses. Kloth et al. used a high-throughput method involving video-tracking of aphid behavior on leaf discs to score 350 Arabidopsis accessions for aphid resistance. They then used genome-wide association mapping […]