A longstanding question in plant science is how plants “know” that they are under threat. The identification of cell-surface receptors that identify conserved pathogen patterns sheds some light on biotic stress perception, but what about abiotic stresses such as excessive heat or drought? Lamers et al. give an update on what we currently understand about […]
Update: How plants sense and respond to stressful environments A longstanding question in plant science is how plants “know” that they are under threat. The identification of cell-surface receptors that identify conserved pathogen patterns sheds some light on biotic stress perception, but what about abiotic stresses such as excessive heat or drought? Lamers et al. […]
RALFs (Rapid Alkalinzation Factors) were one of the first types of signaling peptides identified in plants, and as their name suggests they were shown to induce an increase in the pH (i.e., alkalinization) of culture medium, through inducing phosphorylation of a plasma-membrane proton pump. There are more than 30 RALF-encoding genes in Arabidopsis, and also […]
It’s widely thought that plants acquired the ability to live on land thanks to a little help from their friends, specifically arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Even now, most land plants form mutually beneficial associations with fungi or bacteria, and these often involve the plant cells acting as hosts for their intracellular symbionts. Some plants however have […]
Opinion: We aren’t good at picking candidate genes, and it’s slowing us down Recent advances have facilitated the generation of huge phenotypic datasets from plant populations. However, the means to inexpensively organise such datasets to unequivocally determine causal genes has evaded researchers. Here, Baxter discusses how human bias when selecting candidate genes is compromising research […]
Great strides have been made in discovering the molecular players that allow plants and mycorrhizal fungi to establish their symbiosis. Here, Tedersoo et al. look beyond the single plant and address how these associations affect plant communities. Notably, they review the functions of the four evolutionarily distinct types of mycorrhizal associations separately and identify commonalities […]
Absorption of red and far-red light by phytochromes dramatically affects plant development, and many of these effects are mediated by the PIF (PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR) family of transcription factors. Favero reviews the many ways that PIF activity is regulated beyond through their interactions with phytochrome. These include post-translational modifications leading to protein turnover, sequestration into […]
Maize has provided some fascinating mutants and developmental insights, but its genomic complexity has made it more difficult (for example as compared to rice) to identify agronomically important genes. Liu et al. describe a new high-throughput method to integrate forward- and reverse-genetics to identify genes in maize and other crops with complex genomes. They selected […]
The trait of herbicide tolerance allows farmers to use chemical means to eliminate weed competitors. Acetolactate synthase (ALS) is an enzyme targeted by more than 50 different herbicides. In order to generate novel herbicide tolerance traits, Kuang et al. used a base-editing artificial evolution approach, by targeting nucleotide-modifying enzymes (cytosine deaminase and adenosine deaminase) to […]