Entries by Mary Williams

Review: Phytochrome diversification in cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae ($)

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Phytochromes were first characterized in classic studies of plants, in which their contributions to seed germination and initiation of flowering were described. Subsequently, phytochromes were identified in cyanobacteria and in non-photosynthetic organisms including fungi. Rockwell and Lagarias review the structure and function of phytochromes in diverse organisms, describe current models for the origin of plant phytochromes, […]

Review: Light-harvesting antenna complexes in Physcomitrella patens: implications for evolutionary transition from green algae to land plants ($)

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The ancestors of land plants were aquatic. Myriad changes accompanied the transition from aquatic to terrestrial life, including changes necessitated by the difference in light intensity and quality. Bryophytes, the earliest diverging land plants, have some characteristics that reveal how plants transitioned from aquatic algae. The moss Physcomitrella patens has become a model for the […]

Nature Outlook Supplement: Food Security (OA)

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Nature has published an Outlook feature on the topic of Food Security with the following overview articles, all useful for teaching: Food security,   Nutrition: A world of insecurity,   Agrobiodiversity: The living library,   Bioengineering: Solar upgrade,  Egypt: Space to grow,  Perspective: Look beyond production,   Sustainability: A meaty issue,  and Technology: The future of agriculture

What We’re Reading: April 28

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Correspondence: Discussion about the US National Academies GE crop report ($) A series of letters has been published in Nature Biotechnology on the topic of the US National Academies report Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects. From Dec 2016, US National Academies report misses the mark. In the April 2017 issue, authors of the report […]

Brassica oilseeds transporter gene mutations decrease antinutritional glucosinolates

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Glucosinolates are sulfur-containing defense compounds produced by brassica plants. Brassica napus (canola) is an important oilseed crop because a low-glucosinolate variety has been developed. Brassica juncea is more stress tolerant, but has not been developed as a crop due to its high levels of glucosinolates. In a “transport engineering” approach, Nour-Eldin et al. identified glucosinolate […]

Tissue-specific transcriptomics shows the unfolded protein response’s role in maintaining fertility upon heat stress ($)

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Plant reproduction is particularly sensitive to heat stress, so rising temperature is a major threat to food security.  Zhang et al. surveyed the transcriptional responses to heat stress (3 h at 37º) in Arabidopsis and identified large differences between vegetative and reproductive tissue responses to heat. In reproductive tissue, heat-responsive genes include those participating in […]

Zeaxanthin-dependent nonphotochemical quenching does not occur in photosystem I in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Photosynthesis in plants involves two photosystems acting in series, Photosystem I (PSI) and PSII. Each photosystem is a massive complex consisting of numerous proteins and pigments. The photosystems are efficient at light harvesting but also sensitive to high-light induced photooxidative damage. Photosynthetic organisms have several ways to protect against high-light damage, one of which is […]

LIL3, a light-harvesting complex protein, links terpenoid and tetrapyrrole biosynthesis

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The final step in the synthesis of chlorophyll is the joining of chlorophyllide, (a tetrapyrrole with planar structure similar to heme) to a linear lipid (a product of the terpenoid pathway) that provides an attachment point for the resulting chlorophyll to pigment-binding proteins of the light-harvesting complexes. LIL3 (Light-harvesting-Like) is a membrane-spanning protein that was […]

PIF4-controlled auxin pathway contributes to hybrid vigor in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Hybrid vigor is a well-known but still poorly understood phenomenon in which the F1 hybrid progeny of a cross often show enhanced growth as compared to either parent. True-breeding lines that retain this enhanced growth, known as hybrid mimics, have been developed and are important tools for understanding hybrid vigor. Wang et al. characterized several […]