Entries by Nanxun Qin

Formation of NB-LRR receptor ZAR1 resistome in vivo ($) (Mol. Plant)

To fight against pathogenic microbes,plants have evolved intracellular nucleotide-binding, leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) receptors, known as NLRs, to monitor pathogen effector proteins and trigger robust immune responses. ZAR1 is a canonical NLR, and a forms a multimeric resistosome complex in vitro in association with partners and targets RKS1/PBL2/UMP/ATP. Now, Hu et al. have demonstrated that ZAR1 […]

Transcription factor NF‐YB21 positively regulate the root growth in Populus (New Phytol)

Nuclear factor Y (NF-Y) proteins are heterotrimeric transcription factors made up of A, B and C subunits that exist in higher eukaryotes. Previous work has implicated NF-Ys in root growth. Recently, Zhou et al. isolated a root-specific NF-Y family transcription factor in Populus designated as PdNF-YB21. Overexpression or knockout of PdNF-YB21 results in enhanced or […]

Structural basis of unidirectional energy transfer in Porphyridium purpureum phycobilisome (Nature)

Cyanobacteria and red algae employ phycobilisomes (PBSs) as light-harvesting systems to adapt to fluctuating environments. PBSs are composed of phycobiliproteins, linker proteins and chromophores. Ma et al. used cryo-EM to determine the 2.82 Å structure of  the very large (14.7-megadalton, 706 protein subunit) PBS from the unicellular reg alga Porphyridium purpureum, which they compared to […]

HY5 interacts with and recruits HDA9 to negatively regulate autophagy (Mol. Plant)

Plants activate autophagy, a cellular recycling process, to recycle useful nutrients or remove harmful items, helping them to withstand harsh conditions. Recently, Yang et al. found that HY5 is a hub connecting the light signaling and autophagy pathways. Under replete conditions (e.g., light and nitrogen-sufficient), the transcription factor HY5 associates with HDA9 and recruits it […]

CSN5 of COP9 signalosome modulates heat-response of Arabidopsis (biomolecules)

COP9 signalosome (CSN) is a conserved multi-subunit complex in higher eukaryotes that was originally identified as a regulator of plant photomorphogenesis. It functions by regulating ubiquitin-mediated protein stability, through the deneddylase enzymatic acitivity of the CSN5 subunit. CSN5 is encoded by two genes, and the csn5a-1 mutant shows a deficiency of deneddylation, leading to hyper-neddylation […]

A new B-BOX containing protein regulates red light photomorphogenesis ($) (PNAS)

As the primary red light photoreceptor in Arabidopsis, phyB affects various developmental processes, such as seed germination, shade avoidance, etc. PIF3 is a key repressor of phyB-mediated photomorphogenesis that is degraded in red light. Recently Heng et al. identified a positive regulator of red light signaling designated BBX4. In darkness, BBX4 is targeted by COP1 […]

Synthetic biogenesis of chromoplasts from leaf chloroplasts (bioRxiv)

Chromoplasts are a type of plastid, usually found in fruits and flowers, that can accumulate large amounts of carotenoids including beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A). It has been proposed that increasing chromoplast formation could be a way to enhance human consumption of vitamin A. In a new report, Llorente et al. show that they have promoted chloroplast-to-chromoplast […]

Gene-editing in somatic cells can be achieved by spray-on of carbon dots (bioRxiv)

It’s known to all that plant biotechnology can enhance food security, but there are also inevitable disadvantages of these new approaches. At present, introducing DNA into a plant genome is slow and expensive. Recently, Doyle et al. developed a new method which claims to be simple, inexpensive, fast, and versatile in plant species. They mixed […]