Entries by Orla Sherwood

Concerted expansion and contraction of immune receptor gene repertoires in plant genomes (Nature Plants)

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Plant immunity is crucial for adaptation to pathogen attack and subsequent survival. Two systems support plant immunity. Cell-surface pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and prompt pattern-triggered immunity. Intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptors are activated by pathogen effectors and cause effector-triggered immunity. Ngou et al. examined genomes from 350 plant species including […]

Review. Defining biodiverse reforestation: Why it matters for climate change mitigation and biodiversity (PPP)

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Biodiversity contributes to thriving, healthy ecosystems that are essential for climate tolerance, improving water quality and habitat structure. As time goes on, there is increasing pressure to address climate change concerns worldwide, with one possible climate change mitigation approach being reforestation for carbon sequestration. Andres et al. address issues with simple reforestation, asking what characterizes […]

Stemborer-induced rice plant volatiles boost direct and indirect resistance in neighboring plants (New Phytol)

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Herbivore attack can trigger release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in numerous plant species. These airborne compounds from an infected plant act as messengers in plant-plant interactions causing adaptation to the stress in adjacent plants. Globally, rice is a staple food for millions of people, rendering pest infestation a large threat to rice growers. Yao […]

Chloroplast redox state changes mark cell-to-cell signalling in the hypersensitive response (New Phytol)

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Programmed cell death (PCD) plays roles in both developmental and environmental responses across plant species. During pathogen attack, the hypersensitive response can limit spread of infection by orchestrating an organised death of cells around the infection area. A recent study by Lukan et al. demonstrated that the chloroplast redox state fluctuates depending on the proximity […]

ATTED-II v11: A plant gene coexpression database using a sample balancing technique by subagging of principal components (Plant Cell Physiol)

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Genes are generally expressed in concert with one another with data often represented by gene co-expression networks. Gene co-expression data may be useful in identifying genes with unknown functions and are generally utilized in exploring molecular processes occurring during normal development as well as during biological stresses. ATTED-II, is a database of plant gene coexpression […]

Nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR 5 mediated by nitric oxide suppresses ethylene biosynthesis in apple fruit (New Phytol.)

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Mechanisms of phytohormone modulation and their interface with other regulatory molecules are still being uncovered. Nitric oxide (NO) is a regulatory molecule which has been shown to affect ethylene biosynthesis through the action of ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR 5 (ERF5) in apple fruit. New work by Ji et al. demonstrates that ERF5 nucleocytoplasmic shuttling is dependent […]

Mitochondrial retrograde signaling through UCP1-mediated inhibition of the plant oxygen-sensing pathway (Curr Biol)

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Plants have a plethora of oxygen requiring enzymes that are essential for survival. Mitochondria require oxygen to create ATP, yet during hypoxia they can alter gene expression in the nucleus through retrograde signaling, which may promote stress tolerance. Barreto et al. recently delineated a novel actor in the elusive signal transduction pathway in retrograde signaling […]

Shoot and root single cell sequencing reveals tissue- and daytime-specific transcriptome profiles (Plant Physiol.)

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Many biological processes are controlled by the circadian clock in plants, yet studies often don’t report sampling timepoints, leaving much to be discovered about the plant circadian rhythm. Apelt et al. have utilised single cell RNA sequencing to examine almost 70,000 Arabidopsis cells from above and below ground tissues at day-end and night-end timepoints to […]