Leaf senescence, which overlaps with the reproductive growth phase in annual plants, constitutes the last stage in the development of a leaf, and several endogenous and exogenous factors control this, ultimately influencing the plant’s fitness, crop yield quantity and quality. The WRKY family of transcription factors (TFs), particularly WRKY53, has already been shown to play […]
Plants use several photoreceptors to perceive light including the cryptochromes (CRYs), which are implicated in blue-light reception and coordinate developmental processes including photomorphogenesis. Here, Liu et al. shed light on how light and temperature cues simultaneously affect plants. They identified a molecular mechanism by which blue-light negatively regulates thermotolerance in Arabidopsis through the CRY1-COP1-HY5 signaling […]
In the dark (e.g., under soil), hypocotyls elongate, but when exposed to light, they stop elongation. The biosynthesis of the plant hormone auxin is implicated in the elongation of hypocotyls in the dark. In the light, however, auxin action is inhibited, thereby limiting hypocotyl elongation. The E3 ubiquitin ligase CONSTITUTIVELY PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1 (COP1) promotes elongated […]
Plants and pathogens are locked in a co-evolutionary arms race. Pathogens secrete effectors into plants, leading to effector-triggered susceptibility. Plants in turn respond through the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the expression of defence-related genes to defend themselves, which leads to effector-triggered immunity. Recently, Li et al. showed that FolSvp2, an effector secreted […]
Plasmodesmata are important for intercellular communication in plants. They are formed through incomplete cytokinesis during which there is no “final cut” of the communication between daughter cells. Unlike animal cells that have a single bridge between cells, plants create several hundreds of plasmodesmata bridges between daughter cells. While the function and structure of the plasmodesmata […]