Plant shoot branching is determined by apical dominance, a process in which the apical bud (shoot tip) inhibits the outgrowth of axillary buds further down the stem to control the number of growing branches. In response to this inhibition, plants have evolved rapid long-distance signaling mechanisms to release axillary buds and replenish the plant with […]
Vesicle traffic to and from the plasma membrane plays an integral role in regulating protein localization and activity, membrane composition, and cell surface area. Clathrin is a structural protein that forms a lattice-like complex composed of two H chain subunits (CHC1 and CHC2) and two light chain subunits (CLC1 and CLC2). The subunits assemble a […]
Pattern formation in multicellular organisms is the result of coordinated cell division and cell fate determination. In animals, cell fate is determined mainly by a cell lineage-dependent mechanism, whereas positional information is thought to be the primary determinant of cell fate in plants. Currently, our understanding of cell fate regulation in plants relies mostly on […]
Improving photosynthetic efficiency is a major target for increasing crop biomass production and yield potential. The canopy photosynthetic efficiency, which is determined by leaf area index, canopy architecture, and leaf photosynthetic properties, plays an important role in determining biomass accumulation. Perhaps because there has been an overemphasis on the photosynthetic properties of leaves rather than […]
Calcium (Ca2+) is an important cellular second messenger for diverse developmental processes and environmental responses in both plants and animals. Transient increases in cytosolic Ca2+ are activated in plants during a host of environmental and developmental processes, including root growth, stomatal movement, pollen growth, abiotic stress responses, and plant-microbe interactions. The secret as to how […]
Nitrogen (N) is an essential nutrient that plants require in large amounts for growth and development. In industrial countries, high N fertilization enables maximum crop yields, and in the last 50 years, the use of synthetic N fertilizers has increased dramatically to meet food demands. Improving the efficiency of N uptake and utilization in plants […]
Land plants lose vast quantities of water to the atmosphere during photosynthetic gas exchange. To supply this high demand for water an internal transport system comprised of xylem conduits irrigates the leaf. Selection for greater rates of photosynthesis and increased productivity is believed to have been the primary driver behind the >10 fold increase in […]
The plastid genome of higher plants encodes about 100 genes, the products of which assemble with approximately 3,000 nucleus-encoded proteins to form the plastid transcription and translation machinery and carry out complex metabolic functions, including photosynthesis and fatty acid and amino acid biosynthesis. Plastid transformation is routine only in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), although reproducible protocols […]
Increasing photosynthetic capacity appears to be a viable route towards increasing crop yields. An endogenous target identified for manipulation toward this goal is the cytochrome b6f (cyt b6f) complex that is located in the thylakoid membrane and which functions in both linear and cyclic electron transport, providing ATP and NADPH for photosynthetic carbon fixation. Studies […]