Photosystem II (PSII) is a protein complex located in the thylakoid membrane of chloroplasts that is involved in executing the initial reaction of photosynthesis in plants. When plants are exposed to extreme temperature conditions, PSII gets damaged. To repair the damage, one of the core proteins of PSII, the D1 protein, needs to be synthesized […]
Roots have many specialized cells arranged in concentric circles that are functionally homologous among various plant species but with varying cell-type-specific developmental programs. To further understand these developmental programs, Kajala et al. performed TRAPseq (Translating Ribosome Affinity Purification of mRNA coupled with sequencing) to determine differentially expressed translatomes in 12 different cell-types of tomato root. […]
Parasitic plants develop unique structures called haustoria that penetrate into the host plant vasculature, from which they take nutrients. During this process, haustorial epidermal cells differentiate into specialized cells called intrusive cells, which eventually re-differentiate into a xylem bridge connected to the host vasculature. In Ogawa et al., the authors identified differentially expressed genes in […]
Sugarcane is one of the major crops for sugar and ethanol production and has been successfully used for first generation ethanol production through sucrose fermentation, but second generation ethanol production, through cell wall depolymerization, is still limited. Aerenchyma formation in sugarcane root occurs through the digestion of cell walls but the process controlling it remains […]
The ability to reliably induce a transgene has greatly enhanced the study of plant biology. Various chemical inducible system have worked robustly in plants, but plant synthetic biology is still lacking an efficient orthogonal (from outside) inducible system where multiple genes can be controlled at the same time. The Q-system from the fungus Neurospora crassa […]
A plant’s light environment is complex and variable, but through different photoreceptors the plant can perceive its environment and grow appropriately. For example, plants respond differently in the presence of dense vegetation (leading to a low red to far-red light ratio due to far-red light being reflected off nearby leaves) versus canopy shade (low levels […]