Sentience, the capacity to feel subjectively, is considered limited to organisms that have a nervous system and a centralized brain. Plants, therefore, have been excluded from this group based on: lack of a transmission mechanism like the animal nervous system; lack of a brain; simplicity; and inability to run away from a threat or to […]
Many food-producing regions rely on the withdrawal of water from non-renewable underground sources, a condition called groundwater depletion for irrigation (GWD). Globally, GWD increased by 22% between 2000 and 2010. When food produced with GWD is exported, the exporting country is essentially exporting its non-renewable water resources. Dalin et al. analyzed regional and crop-specific GWD […]
Humans aren’t very sophisticated at reading chemical communication cues. Towards deciphering the information content of complex chemical mixtures produced by plants and animals, Junker et al. ask to what extent chemical communication displays (CCDs) are replicated between samples and individuals. The first finding is that covariation (similarity in the blends) is higher in samples produced […]
Waterlogging, a process by which water saturates soil, results in oxygen-deficient soil conditions and can result in massive crop loss. In order for plants to survive in waterlogged soil, shoots transport oxygen to roots through lysigenous aerenchyma, a specialized tissue type formed by ethylene-induced programed cell death. Using molecular and biochemical methods, Yamauchi et al. […]
Shoot branching patterns are determined by whether lateral buds are activated or inhibited. Classic studies showed that auxin transport both in the stem and from the bud affects bud outgrowth, and more recent studies have demonstrated a role for strigolactones in regulating bud outgrowth, probably through effects on auxin transport. Genetic studies in both maize […]
Although plant cells are surrounded by walls, cytoplasmic strands connect adjacent cells through junctions called plasmodesmata. Liu et al. investigated the contributions of plasmodesmata to signaling between root quiescent center (QC) cells and the cells that surround the QC by expression of an inducible gene for callose production in the QC cells. Callose is a […]
In C3 plants at ambient CO2 levels, Rubisco’s oxygenation reaction occurs about once for every three carboxylation reactions. One of the oxygenation products, 2-phosphoglycolate, is rapidly dephosphorylated to glycolate which is toxic and inhibitory to photosynthesis. Glycolate has to be removed from the chloroplast for its subsequent metabolism. South et al. carried out a reverse […]
The CO2-fixing enzyme ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (Rubisco) works most efficiently at high concentrations of CO2. Many organisms have evolved CO2-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs), such as the PEP-carboxylation that occurs upstream of Rubisco in C4 plants. Diatoms and other eukaryotic algae use a biophysical mechanism involving transporters of CO2 or HCO3– produced by carbonic anhydrase through the […]
Classic studies revealed an interesting genetic relationship between two loci that control pigmentation in soybeans seeds. Dominant alleles of the I locus suppress pigmentation through the production of small interfering RNAs that target chalcone synthase RNA (an enzyme involved in pigment production). Other I alleles including ii and ik lead to partially pigmented seeds. The effect […]