Reiter et al. investigate the molecular basis for coupling factor CF1 recruitment in Arabidopsis thaliana. The Plant Cell (2022). By Thilo Rühle Background: Thylakoid ATP synthases are impressive molecular engines that harness the light-driven proton gradient to generate ATP during photosynthesis. Their molecular mode of operation and atomic structure have been elucidated, but their assembly […]
Ning et al. identify a transcription factor responsible for modulating nitrogen and carbon metabolism in response to nitrogen availability. Background: Starch and protein are the main components of maize (Zea mays) endosperm. Nitrogen (N) fluctuation affects starch and protein levels in the endosperm. Earlier work in maize indicated that several transcription factors (TFs), such as […]
Nan et al. examine the localization of key factors in maize stomatal development. Qiong Nan and Michelle Facette Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA Background: Stomata are small pores on the plant surface that open and close to allow gas exchange––allowing plants to “breathe”. Plant species have different numbers, shapes, and […]
Qiu et al. reveal the role of a nuclear Phytophthora effector in suppressing plant immunity via interfering the formation of nuclear transcriptional complex, Plant Cell (2022). By Xufang Qiu, Liang Kong and Yuanchao Wang Background: To prevent infection, plants have evolved two layers of immunity, pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI). Activation of PTI […]
Wang et al. reveal how the PPR-E proteins function in RNA editing in maize mitochondria. Yong Wang and Bao-Cai Tan Key Laboratory of Plant Development and Environmental Adaptation Biology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China Background: Mitochondria produce energy for all cell activities and contain genomes harboring about 60 […]
Hodin et al. explore the function of the vacuolar nitrate transporter CLCA and provide insight on potentially improving nitrogen use efficiency. Background: Nitrogen is quantitatively the most important inorganic nutrient for plants. Roots mainly take nitrogen up in the form of nitrate (NO3–). Once inside the cells, NO3– can be assimilated into amino acids or […]
Dai et al. demonstrate the key function of a non-coding RNA delicately regulating cucumber fruit–leaf relationship By The research group led by Prof. Minmin Miao from Yangzhou University Background: For fruit-bearing crops, plants must allocate photosynthate from leaves to fruits. Most fruiting plants mainly transport sucrose from leaves to other organs. However, stachyose is the main sugar that is transported in cucumber. The enzyme stachyose […]
Ai and Li et al. explore the mechanism by which an RNA-binding protein regulates plant immunity. By Gan Ai1,3, Tianli Li 1,3, Hai Zhu1, Xiaohua Dong1, Xiaowei Fu1, Chuyan Xia1, Weiye Pan1, Maofeng Jing1, Danyu Shen1, Ai Xia1, Brett M. Tyler2, Daolong Dou1* 1College of Plant Protection, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Nanjing Agricultural University, […]
Park H.J., Gamez-Arjona F., et al. show how plants reset the time of flowering under salinity stress. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac289 Background: For plants, extremes in the cardinal conditions of light, temperature, nutrients and water availability are major drivers of natural selection. Adaptive responses must be coupled to adjustments in the reproductive strategy to be favored […]