Guo et al. show that miR9678 affects seed germination in wheat by generating phased siRNAs and modulating abscisic acid/gibberellin signaling. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00842 By Guanghui Guo and Yingyin Yao Background: Seed germination is important for grain yield and quality and rapid, near-simultaneous germination in a crop helps in cultivation; however, cultivars that germinate too readily […]
Kiba et al. focus on transcriptional regulation of nitrogen starvation responses. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00810 By Takatoshi Kiba Background: Nitrogen availability in the soil profoundly affects plant growth and productivity, and thus crop yield. To meet expanding food demands, the global use of nitrogen fertilizer in agricultural production has increased dramatically since the 1950s and the […]
Akagi et al. identify a gender determining gene in kiwifruit. The Plant Cell (2018). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00787 By T. Akagi, I. M. Henry, H. Ohtani, T. Morimoto, K. Beppu, I. Kataoka, and R. Tao Background: In flowering plants, hermaphroditism, or the presence of both male and female organs in each flower, represents the most common state, and […]
Heng et al. demonstrate a role of OsALMT7-mediated malate transport in panicle development and grain production of rice. The Plant Cell (2018). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00998 By Yueqin Heng, Chuanyin Wu and Jianmin Wan Background: Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world’s population. The number of spikelets on a panicle (panicle size) is […]
Ruan et al. discover a protein module that regulates rice leaf inclination in response to soil Pi availability. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00738 Background: As an essential element for plant growth, phosphorus (P) is taken up by plant roots as inorganic Pi (Pi) from the soil solution. The amount of Pi in the soil that is available […]
Zhang et al. discover a protein that interacts with the photoreceptor phyA and plays a role in plant response to far-red light. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00677 By Shaoman Zhang, Cong Li and Jigang Li Background: Far-red (FR) light, corresponding to 700- to 750- nm wavelengths of sunlight, is not used by plants for photosynthesis and thus […]
Ma et al. investigate a protein complex that controls steady-state mRNA circadian oscillations https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.00052 By Yuan Ma, Sergio Gil, Klaus D. Grasser and Paloma Mas Background: Circadian clocks are internal time-keeping mechanisms that help organisms to adapt to the environmental changes that occur during the day and night cycle. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the circadian clock […]
Bastakis et al. investigate control of the greening process in Arabidopsis https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00947. By Emmanouil Bastakis Background: The greening of the plants is based on the synthesis and accumulation of the chlorophylls, which takes place in chloroplasts. Chlorophylls capture the energy from sunlight and then use it to convert CO2 from the atmosphere into sugars, which […]
Zauner et al. investigate the mechanism of protein re-purposing. The Plant Cell (2018). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00963. By Florian B. Zauner, Elfriede Dall and Hans Brandstetter Background: Plants cannot run away from herbivores, drought, or heat. To withstand adverse conditions, plants have developed a diverse arsenal of proteins, their proteomes (total complement of proteins). Certain enzymes function to […]